Our honest opinion on the NZ Public Party / Advance NZ abortion policy

Just over 10 days ago we published this image showing the percentage of MPs in each party currently in Parliament who voted for and against Labour’s Abortion Legislation Act:

Longtime followers of our Facebook page will know that we do this sort of thing on a regular basis so that the general public is better informed about how our MPs are or have acted when it comes to pro-life issues.

This time however, we were inundated with criticism and complaints from people who didn’t like us pointing out that 100% of the Advance NZ Party MPs (they currently only have one - Jami-Lee Ross) voted for the Abortion Legislation Act.

Jami-Lee Ross didn’t just vote for the Abortion Legislation Act, he also voted against banning sex-selective abortions in NZ and making it a legal requirement for care to be given to any child born alive after a botched abortion.

He supported the most extreme version of the Abortion Legislation Act.

We can understand how these facts are hard to stomach for the supporters of Billy TK and his New Zealand Public Party now that Billy TK has chosen to merge with Jami-Lee Ross under the Advance NZ Party banner.

Based on the feedback we received it seems that at least some of the Advance NZ supporters were unaware that Jamie-Lee Ross’ had voted for such an extreme abortion law.

Others seemed to be unaware that Advance NZ had existed for many months before it recently merged with the NZ Public Party - some seemed to be under the mistaken impression that the merger created the Advance NZ party.

To fair though, this isn’t just about Jami-Lee Ross. We think there are good reasons for pro-life voters to be concerned with the NZ Public Party policy on abortion as well.

Here are the key statements currently on their website about their abortion policy, and our commentary in response to these policy statements:

“The Rights of the Person Extends to that of the Unborn”

So far, so good - that’s a VERY pro-life statement.

“We at Advance New Zealand / New Zealand Public Party do not support abortion but recognise this as a ‘right to choose’ issue, however, we are against using abortion as a method of contraception and a means to justify the killing of babies for fetal tissue and organ harvesting.”

This statement is not so good. The problem lies with the fact that they consider abortion to be a ‘right to choose’ issue.

This not only contradicts their opening statement that the rights of the person extend to the unborn (which means that abortion is not simply a ‘right to choose’ issue), but it is also not a pro-life policy.

This is a pro-choice policy.

“We also understand that there could be reasons for abortion such as rape, unsafe pregnancy and health reasons but recognise the law as it currently stands is inhumane, therefore we are dedicated to repealing it but will take the issue to a binding public referendum. We will include a thorough abortion education campaign during the referendum so that ALL people are educated about what abortion means.”

This is also not a pro-life position.

A person conceived in rape is no less of a person, and no less worthy of protection in the womb than a person conceived after consensual sex is.

We also have serious questions about what is meant by the statement that abortion can be justified for “health reasons”.

This seems to be defining abortion as a form of life-saving therapy, when in actual fact, due to advances in modern medicine, such issues are so rare as to be practically non-existent. We now have the ability to safely manage and negotiate such risks in other ways, meaning that there is no therapeutic justification for abortion in those cases.

The fact that they are dedicated to repealing the Abortion Legislation Act is definitely a good thing, but this must also be balanced against the fact that Jami-Lee Ross helped to bring that Act into law just six months ago.

We have serious concerns about whether this stated commitment to repealing the Abortion Legislation Act could, or would gain much traction when one of the two Advance NZ party leaders helped to vote it in.

“We want to make sure the rights of the unborn child are protected right from conception, along with the rights of the mother.”

This is confusing, because you cannot be both committed to protecting the rights of a human being from conception, and, at the same time committed to the ideology that abortion is a ‘right to choose’ issue.

In order to protect the rights of the unborn child from conception you would need to reject any ideology which says that taking away those rights should be a matter of personal choice.

“People have the right to prevent unwanted conception, regardless of religion or creed. We will fully fund contraception and further contraceptive research.”

We found this statement a little odd, particularly the commitment to funding further contraceptive research.

That’s normally something that would be done by the private corporations who manufacture and sell contraceptive devices.

“We will amend New Zealand adoption laws so that it is easier for unwanted babies to be adopted by proven suitable and caring parents.”

This is an excellent pro-active policy direction that every pro-life person would gladly and strongly endorse.

“It is important to us that we get our policy right, and to ensure this we are currently in consultation with a wide group of people who work in this field, including midwives and doctors.”

The fact that they are willing to listen to outside counsel is a positive thing, however that input ultimately needs to be guided by sound ethical principles if it is to result in a truly humane policy for the party.

“…the Rights of the Person starts at the conception of the person. Thus the Bill of Rights fundamentally protects the person, even if they are not yet born.”

This is an excellent statement, but, as previously highlighted, it is contradicted by their earlier policy commitment to making abortion a ‘right to choose’ issue.

“The Bill of Rights, therefore, cannot grant the killing of a person as a method of birth control.”

We would actually argue that the Bill of Rights position is even stronger than this. We would say that it cannot grant the killing of an innocent person for ANY reason - not simply reasons of birth control.

As you can see, the abortion policy of the New Zealand Public Party is a mixed bag, and, at best, we would call it confused.

It contains some very good pro-life statements, but also ones that simply could not be supported by any serious pro-life voter.

Their policy wants to treat abortion as a ‘right to choose’ issue AND a right to life issue, but these two positions completely contradict each other.

We also have major reservations about how seriously pro-life issues will be treated by any party where one of the two leaders voted for the most extreme version of Labour’s Abortion Legislation Act.

This might be difficult for some supporters of Advance NZ or the NZ Public Party to hear, but these are the facts as we see them.

We take seriously our commitment to honestly informing the public about political issues as an independent voice that is not affiliated with any particular political party.

This means that we are always going to tell the truth about how various parties and politicians voted, or what their policy positions are, regardless of how difficult that might be for supporters of any particular party to hear.

We do this, because, when it comes to elections, our hope is that people will make wise choices due to the fact that they have been given all of the important information they need in order to cast a truly informed pro-life vote.