Media Release 22 Nov 2023
Right to Life requests that the incoming National's Christopher Luxon led governement uphold the right of women to stop a medical abortion and choose life for their baby.The lives of more than 4,200 babies worldwide have been saved over the last 50 years from being violently killed, thanks to the abortion pill reversal protocol and the Abortion Pill Reversal network of 1,200 pro-life doctors.
Right to Life opposed the war against women that was being conducted by the Labour led government of Jacinda Ardern, which opposed women exercising their right to choose to stop an abortion of their child and saving the child’s life by implementing the proven abortion pill reversal protocol, one which has a success rate of 68%.
Right to Life made an Official Information Act request to The Ministry of Health in late 2022 asking what evidence they had that the abortion pill reversal protocol was unproven, but they had none. A complaint was then laid with the Ombudsman and is waiting to be taken up with the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health directed that in the event of a woman wishing to change her mind after taking Mifepristone, the first drug, and before taking the second drug Misoprostol, that she could not do so as it was required to complete the abortion.
She was to be informed that the abortion pill reversal protocol was unproven and was opposed by the American Obstetrical and Gynaecological Association.
Right to Life believes that withholding this information from women on the abortion pill reversal protocol is a crime against women and their precious unborn.
Right to Life weeps with those women who in terror and remorse, realised that they were killing their precious child and frantically wanted to save their child by stopping the abortion, only to be told it is too late. It is imperative that this important information is provided as a fundamental right to comply with informed consent and to help women save their child.
The Health & Disability Act, code of Health Rights provides in right 7 that every health consumer has the right to make an informed choice and give informed consent.
(7) Every consumer has the right to refuse services and to withdraw consent to services.
There were 1,171 medical abortions in New Zealand in 2022, with the increasing number of women choosing an early medical abortion [EMA].
It is important to uphold the right of women to choose to change their mind to terminate the life of their child.
Mifepristone starves the unborn baby of Progesterone which the baby needs to survive. The abortion pill reversal procedure entails a woman taking Progesterone, marketed in New Zealand under the name Utrogestan, preferably within 24 hours of taking Mifepristone RU 486. The Progesterone regimen is usually continued for the rest of the first trimester.
There are 7 states in the United States which have legislated to make it mandatory that women considering a medical abortion be given this information.
These states are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah and South Dakota.
The number of babies saved internationally by the protocol over the 50 years since its introduction exceeds 4,200.
Progesterone has been used successfully during pregnancy for more than 50 years without any undesired effects on women.
For those infants who survive the lethal Mifepristone RU 486, there is no evidence of any birth defects associated with this medication.
Ken Orr,
Spokesperson,
Right to Life New Zealand Inc.