The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court judge’s ruling that unborn children do not have a right to life. It also dismissed comments made by the judge about many abortions being granted “on request”
Right to Life sued the Abortion Supervisory Committee for allegedly failing to review whether certifying consultants were lawfully granting women abortions. Right to Life said many abortions were wrongfully allowed on the grounds that keeping the baby would be a “threat to the women’s mental health”.
In a High Court decision in 2008, Justice Forrest Miller said: “There is reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions authorised by certifying consultants.” He was presiding over a case in which Right to Life New Zealand (RTL) sued the committee for alleged failure to perform its functions under the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act. Justice Miller rejected Right to Life’s arguments that an unborn child had any legal right to life under abortion law, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, common law or international law.
Source
- www.stuff.co.nz
- www.NZherald
- Image: National Catholic Register