Right to Life Requests that Parliament Restores Parental Rights to New Zealand Parents

Media Release 6th March 2015

Right to Life requests that Parliament amend the Care of Children Act to require that parents are notified before an abortion is performed on a girl under the age of 16. The Justice and Electoral Select Committee has been giving consideration to the petition of a distressed mother and family whose 15 year old daughter attempted suicide a year after she was smuggled out of school for a Family Planning organised secret abortion. The petition was presented to Parliament by the Hon Chester Borrows MP (pictured), in May 2015.

It is time for Parliament to amend the Care of Children Act 2004, to uphold the right of families to care for their children by ensuring that parents are advised before an abortion on their under 16 year old daughter.

Parental Notification is not an Abortion Issue but a Family Rights Issue –The Denial of Parental Notification is child Abuse. The present law is unjust and requires the support of a litany of lies from school Principles and staff who are required to lie to hide the abortion.

Parliament should ignore Family Planning who fiercely oppose parental involvement. Their fight of course is with the parents of New Zealand. Public opinion polls have revealed 80 per cent support for recognition of the right of parents to be advised if their daughter is seeking to terminate the life of her unborn child. Withholding notification of an abortion could be hiding statutory rape or incest. This is an appalling violation of parental rights and a breach of trust. It is a sad irony that a school requires the written consent of the parents for a child to attend a school picnic or even take an aspirin, but not to attend a abortion facility. Withholding parental notification effectively leaves the young girl with only one choice, death for her child.

Right to Life asks how many other young women have been overwhelmed with grief and guilt over the killing of their child in the womb and have taken their lives. Parliament must not allow this tragedy to happen again.

An abortion constitutes an assault on the body of a young and vulnerable young girl, it is also a lethal attack on a helpless and defenceless unborn child. Young girls facing the trauma of an unplanned pregnancy have a right to the love and protection of their families. The unborn child is also a member of the family, it has an inalienable right to life and has a fundamental right to the love and protection of the girl’s parents; They are, in fact, the child’s grandparents.

Family Planning claim that a change in the law would be “a very backward step for New Zealand”. Family Planning should be well aware, that according to the Guttmacher Institute there are 38 States in the United States that have parental consent or parental notification laws. A total of 21 States have parental consent laws, 12 that have parental notification laws and 5 that require both parental notification and consent. Many of the States require the written consent of both parents, the age of consent is 18 years of age. The parental consent and notification laws have resulted in a decline in teenage pregnancies and a 15 per cent decline in teenage abortions. Western Australia also requires parental notification.

ENDS

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