How could our MPs vote against such a humane ammendment?

By Deanna Kloosterboer

Many New Zealanders were left shocked, disgusted and dismayed last Tuesday night (10th of March) after parliament voted down an amendment to the Abortion Legislation Bill that is currently in its committee stage.

What should have been a ‘no-brainer’ has left so many people horrified and sick to their stomach with many people sharing their thoughts on social media with “I’m in absolute shock”, “I feel sick to my core now like I’m actually gonna be sick”, and “shame on those MPs for being so inhumane”.

MPs had the opportunity to vote on two amendments that would allow for positive changes to the Abortion Legislation Bill that is currently working its way through parliament.

MP Simon O’Connor put forward an amendment that would ensure medical assistance and care should be provided to a baby if they become a survivor of a failed abortion.

This should have been a ‘no-brainer’ moment.

Surely every MP would have taken this opportunity to vote ‘yes’ to something that would ensure proper care and compassion be provided to an abortion survivor.

Surely it is not such a hard task to ask medical professionals already in the room, to literally do their job of caring and to ease the discomfort of a newborn baby.

But no! Shockingly and disturbingly this humane and compassionate amendment was voted down 80 to 34.

Again, I ask why? Are the proponents and supporters of this abortion bill so desperate to push this legislation through that they will vote ‘no’ to something compassionate? What do they have to lose?

This makes no sense to me and has left many others baffled.

This shows a callousness that we have not seen before in New Zealand.

As a nation we are known for being kind and compassionate – but now two thirds of our MPs have shown themselves to be cruel and inhumane and willing to let a vulnerable infant who is born after a failed abortion, die by themselves in pain without any care – even though they may now be viable.

Now might be a good time for us to be reminded of the complete violation of human rights this would ensue.

We are not talking about just abortion anymore!

Now we are talking about a human baby that has been born and is now considered to have its own human rights that would demand it receive medical attention and care.

This is no longer simply under the banner of the mothers “my body, my rights” rhetoric.

This is a baby that has been born and has its own set of human rights that will be blatantly discarded and violated.

If this wasn’t enough to get the public’s blood boiling, MPs then went on to vote down another compassionate amendment.

MP Agnes Loheni’s amendment to provide late term abortion babies (after 20 weeks) with anesthetic to reduce pain before they are aborted.

Again, I don’t see how this hurts anyone to vote ‘yes’. But once again, MPs took a callous stand and voted down the amendment 76 to 43 even though it would cost them nothing to be compassionate.

It is an obvious scientific fact that babies in a late term abortion do feel pain and it seems only compassionate to alleviate their pain prior to their death.

World renowned neurosurgeon, Dr Ben Carson says, “I’ve had the privilege of being able to operate on little babies that were 25, 26, 27, 28 weeks gestation.

“I can guarantee you, they can feel, they can react.

“You have to give them anesthesia if you are going to cut them. Believe me!”

So my question to the MPs that voted against such a simple compassionate gesture of pain relief is “Why?”

Why vote ‘no’ to something compassionate?

It’s not hard to vote ‘yes’ to something that would provide some compassion.

There are other amendments that were thoughtlessly rejected and I fear more are yet to come in this Tuesday’s 17th March committee of the house.

I will be watching closely to see whether MPs believe in sex selective abortion or disability discriminatory abortions as they also vote on these amendments this week.

And I sincerely hope that when the time comes for MPs to vote on whether or not this cruel and inhumane piece of legislation should become a kiwi law at 3rd Reading, that our MPs have the wisdom to see just how cruel and inhumane this is and vote ‘NO’!

Those of us in the public are watching and we are not impressed with cruelty.