In 2016 there were 12,823 abortions reported in New Zealand. This represents a three per cent decrease on the 13,155 abortions reported in 2015. This is the lowest abortion total in 25 years. Right to Life welcomes the continued decrease and applauds the heroic and sacrificial women who chose life for their precious infant. They deserve the generous support of the whole community.
Right to Life also grieves with the women who were so often abandoned by the father of their child in the time of the woman’s greatest need and coerced into an abortion that was chosen for her. It is a cruel mockery and a charade for society to pretend that it is “a woman’s right to choose.” “Choosing” an abortion is a decision of despair and a cry for help.
The abortion statistics are an indictment on our Parliament which sanctions and funds the killing of the innocent as a core health service with unlimited funding and no waiting list, our women deserve better. The statistics disguise the reality that every child violently dismembered in the womb of the child’s mother is an unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation.
The statistics are also an indictment on the media which have generally ignored the media release on abortion statistics made by Statistics NZ. Is it not a tragedy, that the media considers the tragedy reflected by the statistics of little interest and not worth even a mention? It was Joseph Stalin who said the killing of one human being is a tragedy and the killing of tens of thousands just a statistic. Since 1977 more than 500,000 children have been violently killed in their mother’s womb, a massive violation of human rights. Why is the media so coldly indifferent to the killing of New Zealand children in their first nine months of life, why to are the Churches silent?
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Right to Life requests that the government introduce abstinence sexuality programmes to replace Family Planning school sex education programs which encourage promiscuity with abortions arranged without the knowledge or consent of parents as a backup for failed contraceptives.
Repeat abortions totalled 4,679, 3,009 were having their second, 1,075 were having their third, 396 were having their fourth, 129 their fifth, 43 their sixth, 14 their seventh and 13 their eighth or more. Right to Life believes that these statistics are under reported. Studies conducted in the United States, reveal that repeat abortions are actually 50 per cent of the total abortions reported.
Key Facts Abortion Statistics 2016
- The general abortion rate was 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, down from 14.2 per 1,000 in 2015.
- Women aged 20–24 years had the highest abortion rate (21 abortions per 1,000 women aged 20–24 years), down from a high of 41 in 2003.
- Most abortions (64 percent) were a woman’s first abortion.
- 57 percent of abortions were performed before the 10th week of the pregnancy.
- 18 percent of known pregnancies (live births, stillbirths, and abortions) ended in an abortion.
LifeNews.com Note: Ken Orr is the spokesman for Right to Life of New Zealand.
