PRESS RELEASE: Voice For Life Calls for Mandatory Reporting of all Future Born-Alive Abortion Incidents

On the back of Official Information Act data obtained by Family First NZ showing that an average of one baby per month is now being born alive and left to die after failed abortion attempts in NZ, Voice For Life is calling for an urgent change to official reporting.

“Back in June 2021, Voice For Life made the public aware of this issue when we published whistleblower testimony from a healthcare worker who had witnessed a child born alive and left to die without care after an attempted abortion. It is heartbreaking to realise that nothing appears to have been done over the last four years, allowing this to now spiral and become a common occurrence”, says Voice For Life National President Lydia Posthuma.

In light of today’s shocking developments, Voice For Life is calling for an urgent change to require the Ministry of Health to include the following details in all future annual abortion reports:

      • The exact number of born alive abortion incidents that have occurred in the reporting period

      • The gestational age of the children involved in each of these incidents

      • Details about any life-sustaining care provided to the children involved

      • If death occurs, details about the duration of time it took for the child to pass

      • Regional data about where these incidents occurred

“Such reporting is an essential step in ensuring genuine accountability. Abortion is taxpayer funded in our country, and so the New Zealand public have a right to be fully informed about such matters. Any opposition to this basic level of mandatory reporting would raise serious questions,” Posthuma says.

Voice For Life also strongly backs the call from Family First NZ for the government to immediately introduce and pass legislation which requires life-sustaining care of any child born alive after an attempted abortion.

“Family First has done something very important by highlighting this growing issue, and we fully support their call for a law change to require that life-sustaining care be provided to any child born alive under such circumstances. To refuse such a change would raise serious questions about the humanity of our parliament,” Posthuma says.

ENDS

Grace Green