New Zealand Family Planning Group Wants to Distribute Dangerous Abortion Drug

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 10, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

New Zealand Family Planning Group Wants to Distribute Dangerous Abortion Drug

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 10
, 2009

Wellington, New Zealand (LifeNews.com) — The Family Planning Council in New Zealand has submitted an application to the government there to distribute the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone. The group says abortion is not as available as it should be across the large southern Pacific island nation.

The council has submitted an application to the Abortion Supervisory Committee for a license to distribute the abortion drug, which has killed more than a dozen women worldwide and injured more than 1,200 in the United States alone.

"Currently, New Zealand women have inconsistent access to abortion services and in many areas, limited choice about the method of abortion they can access," Family Planning president Linda Penno said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.

"Safe and accessible abortion services are an integral part of good reproductive health care," she claimed. "Applying for this licence is consistent with that philosophy of access and choice."

The group indicated it would use the dangerous abortion drug on women up to 9 weeks into the pregnancy to take the lives of their unborn children.

It also indicated it would use the ulcer medication Cytotec, whose maker has specifically instructed not be used in association with abortions because it is not made for that purpose, as the second part of the abortion drug process.

The first part, known as Mifegyne in New Zealand, essentially deprives the developing baby of nutrition from her mother and starves the child to death. Cytotec is then used for its side effect of causing contractions and the mother gives birth to a deceased baby.

Abortions are already on the rise in New Zealand thanks to taxpayer funding of them.

The Abortion Supervisory Committee issued a report in December indicating there were 18,382 abortions in 2007, which is an increase of 448 from the 2006 figures.

The report showed the country having 19.6 abortions a year per 1000 women aged 15-44.

Because New Zealand law requires two physicians to sign off on any abortion and allows for taxpayer funding of the abortion and the practitioners, the committee found the government paid 196 abortion practitioners and consultants a total of $5,048,096.

Because of the increase in the number of abortions and physician fees, that is a an increase of $1.5 million or more than 30 percent higher than the figure from four years ago.

More than 98 percent of abortions were approved on mental health grounds even though worldwide research — and studies in New Zealand — show abortions themselves cause women a plethora of mental health problems.

The Zealand Right to Life group has complained about the high rate of approved abortions for mental health reasons and a High Court judicial review found reason to doubt the lawfulness of the abortions.

The Abortion Supervisory Committee appealed the decision and Right to Life appealed a second ruling. The case will likely be up for another hearing later this year.

Related web sites:
Right to Life of New Zealand – https://www.right-to-life.org

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