Pro Life group, Southlanders for Life, have denied the implication made in the media that their request to be given the names of the names of the staff of the Invercargill Abortion facility is in some way connected to the anonymous threat of violence against the facility and its staff made in an email to the Abortion Law Reform Association on Wednesday.
Speaking for Southlanders for Life, Father Vaughan Leslie said members had been wrongly accused of issuing the threat. He said the group was “totally opposed” to violence.
“We certainly don’t condone people being harassed.”
Leslie said members would hold peaceful protests outside the clinic before the end of the year.
He confirmed the group had complained to the ombudsman over a lack of consultation before the facility opened. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.
Green Party womens’ affairs spokesperson Jan Logie has accused Southlanders for Life of legitimising “unacceptable behaviour through their push to publicly name the medical professionals undertaking legal abortions in Southland.”
“Fringe and vigilante behaviour needs to be shut down. We don’t want extreme American-style abortion opposition in New Zealand,” she said.
The anonymous threat said:
“People who work at the clinic are legitimate targets and so are you. You’ll be hearing from me again, that is if your computer, or in fact your premises, are in one piece,” it said.
The threat also referred to a hospital source providing details about clinic staff.
Police are investigating.
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