Celebrating World Down Syndrome Awareness Day

Media Release 17 March 2023

Right to Life believes that the Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, who voted for the extremist Abortion Legislation Act, supports the killing up to birth of unborn babies with Down syndrome. Does he believe that only the perfect should be allowed to be born?

Right to Life supports the United Nations World Down Syndrome Day, to be commemorated on Tuesday 21st March to celebrate the contribution that those people with Down syndrome make to our families and community. The theme for this day is “With us not for us.” Working with people with Down syndrome to improve their lives. Every unborn child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation that has been endowed with an inalienable right to life and deserves our respect and protection.

Right to Life asks the Minister of Health, Andrew Little why the government continues to conduct a national screening programme to detect Downs and other disabilities. The government conducts 40,000 screening tests each year to detect the unborn with Downs. The Ministerial guidelines given to clinicians states,” that encouragement should be given to women to make an informed decision.” The experience of many women is that they are expected and encouraged to choose to terminate their child if it has Downs. Right to Life believes that the screening programme is a search and destroy mission. Right to Life requests that the government ceases this intrusive and eugenic national screening programme.

Those with Down syndrome are valued members of our families. Right to Life asks the government why then is the most dangerous place for a child with Down syndrome in its mother’s womb. Statistics reveal that an estimated 71 per cent of children with Downs in New Zealand are killed before birth following screening. The estimated rate in Australia is 90%, in the USA it is 74%, in the UK it is 90%.

In March 2020 the New Zealand Parliament passed the Abortion Legislation Act, which allows for the murder of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome up to birth. The architect of this murderous legislation was the previous Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern who believes that women have a right to kill, up to birth, their unborn children, including those with Down syndrome.

Right to Life shares the fears of the Down community that with the passing of the extremist anti-life Abortion Legislation Act the government’s campaign to eliminate babies before birth with Down syndrome will intensify.

Right to Life believes that this government and previous governments instituted a search and destroy mission to eliminate Down syndrome not by remedying the condition but by eliminating the person with Down syndrome. The Down syndrome community are the most persecuted community in New Zealand.. Between 2009 and 2017 it is estimated that 694 children with Down syndrome were killed before birth in abortions in New Zealand.

Prior to the third reading, 1,300 people with Down syndrome and their families sent an open letter entreating the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern to honour her public commitment to the Down community and the nation to retain the post 20 week prohibition of the termination of babies with Down syndrome. The Prime Minister callously ignored that impassioned plea.

Right to Life will not forget the betrayal of women, the unborn child and the disability community. We will not be silenced, we will not abandon the battlefield, nor will we rest until we achieve justice for women, the unborn child and those with Down syndrome.

Ken Orr

Spokesperson,

Right to Life New Zealand Inc.