Wednesday, 3 November, 2004

Smith puts up teen abortion SOP

United Future's Murray Smith will tomorrow move a supplementary order paper on the Care of Children Bill, in favour of parents being informed when their teenage daughters seek abortions.

The Bill is a conscience matter and Mr Smith is promoting his SOP as an individual member.

"Judith Collins had the right idea when she introduced her SOP, but she blinked," he said.

"I believe that it has now been so watered down and compromised, that she's let the nation's parents down - parents who want to be responsible for their children through good times and bad.

"This is about saying that the right and obligation of parents to nurture and protect their children rather than any teacher, doctor, counsellor or well-meaning outsider, is protected in all but exceptional circumstances where it is clearly not in the best interests of the child to have any of their parents informed.

"It is about saying that just because a teenage girl is scared to tell her parents that she is pregnant and wants to hide something such as this from them, does not mean that hiding it is in her best interests unless she has solid grounds to have their right to know and care for her undercut," Mr Smith said.

"And if there are solid grounds then we as a society ought to be concerned enough about that to ensure intervention on the part of the social welfare agencies or police."

We simply cannot allow the situation to occur where a young girl is raped, contracts an STD and suffers serious psychological problems and yet no one, including, in particular her mother, is told by the 'professionals'.

ENDS

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