Will Jacinda Ardern Champion Women in Seeking Legal Recognition for the Humanity of the Unborn Child and its Right to Life?
Media Release Friday 20th April 2018

Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has the opportunity to support a change to the Crimes Act to give legal recognition to the scientific reality that an unborn child in the womb is a human being. A human being endowed at conception with human rights, the foundation right being an inalienable right to life. The Prime Minister has the unprecedented opportunity to say “let’s do this” and be the champion of women, mothers and the unborn. She has the opportunity to correct a great injustice. But will she?

New Zealand led the world in giving women the vote. Jacinda Ardern now has the opportunity to again lead the world in recognising the dignity of motherhood and the humanity of the unborn.

The child in the womb of Jacinda Ardern is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of the Creator’s loving creation, it is not a potential human being, but a human being with great potential. As the weakest and most defenceless member of the human family her unborn child deserves love, respect and effective legal protection for its right to life.

Never before in the history of mankind have we ever known so much about the miracle of creation and the development of the unborn child. Today we have 3D scans which provide a window into the womb. Today increasingly the child in the womb is seen as a patient that can receive surgery to correct disabilities.

The Minister of Justice, Andrew Little in a letter to Right to Life dated 16 March confirmed that the government “generally adheres to the “born alive” rule and that prior to live birth a foetus does not hold status as a legal person .” The Crimes Act section 159 states that for the purposes of this Act the unborn child does not become a human being until it is born.’ It should be recognised that it was not Parliament’s intention in 1961 in passing this legislation, to deny the humanity of the child but to differentiate between the homicide of a born person and the killing of a child before birth. At this time abortion was unlawful except to save the life of the mother. There was also overwhelming community support for the right to life of the unborn.

It was Justice Miller in 2007 in the High Court in Wellington in Right to Life V the Abortion Supervisory Committee stated in his judgment;

“The rule according legal rights only at birth is founded on convenience rather than medical or moral principle.” Right to Life notes that this law denies the right to life and the right to be born of the unborn child.

“That is a compelling indication that the legal status of an unborn child differs profoundly from that of a born person. A legal right to life would be incongruous in such a law, for it would treat the unborn child as a separate legal person, possessing a status fundamentally incompatible with induced abortion.

This is the justice issue of this era, Jacinda Ardern would deserve the full support of the community in advocating for the legal recognition of the humanity and personhood of the unborn and heralding a new era of justice for women and their precious unborn.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life.

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