My Submission to the Select Committee on the Abortion Legislation Bill

I certainly won't claim to have the most well-written submission, but it is complete and as follows. :) 

I strongly and fully oppose the Abortion Legislation Bill.

New Zealand law should protect the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society, and this bill fails to do so in many ways.

Companies such as Tupperware supplying kitchen products and Stampin’ Up! supplying craft items allow clients to cancel orders in return for a full refund within several weeks of placement, in case clients change their mind. If we anticipate people changing their minds – and allow them to do so with no strings attached – with something so insignificant as an order for kitchen products or craft items, how much more should we require a “cooling off” period for a decision as big, important, and life-changing as abortion?

The Abortion Legislation Bill’s clause on conscientious objection is drastically insufficient. Requiring a doctor to have any involvement in a procedure violating his conscience is a blatant disregard for the doctor’s rights. And in fact, because the bill allows women to self-refer anyway, this requirement for doctors to be involved is nothing more than a completely unnecessary and brazen removal of the rights of our doctors.

New Zealand law acknowledges that persons less than 16 years of age are not mature enough to purchase alcohol, to obtain a marriage license, to drive a car, to vote, or even to purchase spray paint. It surely would be entirely contradictory to prohibit all of these things and at the same time allow minors to access abortion without restriction.

Advances in imaging technology allow us to witness the amazing intricacy of unborn children at earlier and earlier stages. We can see them move around, kick, suck their thumbs, and even clap their hands. To identify an unborn child’s sex by ultrasound obviously requires that certain body parts are formed! By only 12 weeks gestation all organs are in place and simply have to grow larger before birth. Liberalising our abortion law would completely disregard our increasing knowledge and understanding of a child’s development prior to birth.

Similarly, advancing medical technology brings viability to increasingly earlier ages. At present this means a child can survive outside the womb from around 20 weeks. If our law is to reflect this, we should prohibit late-term abortion entirely, a far cry from liberalising it as this bill proposes to do.  A live birth from 20 weeks gestation onward will both allow the woman to end the pregnancy and retain the child’s right to life.

In modern New Zealand society we are frequently reminded that we are not allowed to discriminate against people for any reason. Not because of race, gender, sexuality, or disability. Despite this, the Abortion Legislation Bill fails to include any form of protection from such discrimination. Are we to become like Iceland and abort almost all of our pre-born children with Down’s Syndrome? Surely this is a violation of disability rights. Are we happy to allow New Zealand parents to abort their daughter simply because they wanted a son? This is the height of gender inequality.

As a former foetus, a woman, and a New Zealand citizen I stand fully opposed to the Abortion Legislation Bill. Let us be a society and a nation that values and protects every human life.