24 July 2012

Media Release

Government Resists Pressure From UN CEDAW Committee to Change Abortion Law

Right to Life Commends the New Zealand government for rejecting pressure from the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW] Committee to review its abortion laws.

The Committee is currently reviewing New Zealand’s compliance with the Convention. This is the seventh four yearly review conducted by the Committee. The Committee has asked why the law has not been decriminalized as previously recommended by the Abortion Supervisory Committee. Patricia Schulz, a member of the Committee alleged that the abortion law needed to be changed to reflect the country’s standard of human rights.

The Minister of Women’s Affairs, Jo Goodhew said that there was no appetite for reform and that as it was a conscience vote, there was no assurance that it would pass.

It is disturbing that the government is being pressured by the CEDAW Committee to decriminalize abortion as a human rights measure. The New Zealand government was the first government to sign the Convention. There is nothing in the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women that requires countries that have signed the Convention to decriminalize its abortion laws. It is an unwarranted intrusion into the domestic affairs of our country for a United Nations Committee to manipulate a Convention to promote an anti life agenda.

There is no human right that permits a mother to kill her unborn child. The unborn child has an inalienable right to life from the moment of conception. Abortion is violence against women and a violation of her human rights. The decriminalization of abortion would violate the human rights of the unborn child and that of women. It would remove all protection from the child and deem the child to be the property of the mother. It would then be no longer a crime to kill an unborn child. The killing of the child would then be no longer a justice issue but a health issue. Our abortion laws need to be upheld to stop the unlawful abortion on demand and to protect mothers and their unborn. It would be a grave injustice if Parliament decriminalised abortion,

Our human rights are not conferred on us by Parliament or by society or even the United Nations, they are conferred on us by our Creator. It is the duty of Parliament to provide effective legal protection for our human rights. To fail to do this would be condoning the taking of the life of the most defenceless human in our society, and thereby place itself far away from natural justice and its basic principle, “that all human life is inherently valuable and must be protected by law”.

In any society the law must protect the voiceless and the weak, and be seen to protect them.

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