Mary and Bill English warn MPs of ‘gruesome’ abortions

NewsRoom 31 October 2019
Family First Comment: Thank you Bill and Mary for speaking truth!
“It will be legal to kill that child in the birth canal and the way they do that, if the abortion doesn’t work, is that they put a pin through the base of the skull into the brain. It is extreme violence that’s what it is, that’s the act.” His wife Mary, a doctor, told the committee there could be a greater number of “gruesome” abortions after the legislation was passed. “[These] require a lethal injection to an otherwise very alive unborn baby before inducing full labour so as to deliver a dead baby.”
www.abortionprocedures.nz

Former Prime Minister Bill English has faced questions from MPs around abortion procedures that he says the country could see more of if a law change goes ahead, Dileepa Fonseka reports.

Bill English and his wife Mary have painted a graphic picture of abortion during a plea to law makers to keep abortion laws as they are.

Currently the law allows a woman to have an abortion if she is able to convince two doctors the birth of the child would put them in physical or mental danger.

Proposed changes would see that test scrapped for abortions before 20 weeks. Women would also be able to self-refer to an abortion service provider and the state would have the power to set up safe areas around specific abortion facilities on a case-by-case basis.

The former Prime Minister criticised many of the proposed changes at a select committee hearing on Wednesday but also launched into a fierce defence of the right of medical professionals to conscientiously object to carrying out abortions if the changes were made.

“It will be legal to kill that child in the birth canal and the way they do that, if the abortion doesn’t work, is that they put a pin through the base of the skull into the brain,” he said,

“It is extreme violence that’s what it is, that’s the act.”

His wife Mary, a doctor, told the committee there could be a greater number of “gruesome” abortions after the legislation was passed.

“[These] require a lethal injection to an otherwise very alive unborn baby before inducing full labour so as to deliver a dead baby.”
READ MORE: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/10/31/886524/mary-and-bill-english-wield-warnings-of-gruesome-abortions

Bill English returns to Parliament to protest abortion law changes
NewsTalk ZB 30 October 2019
Former Prime Minister Sir Bill English has returned to Parliament to protest proposed changes to abortion laws, saying the way they treat health workers who object are “disgraceful”.

But life-long abortion rights campaigner Dame Margaret Sparrow says the reforms need to go further.

A parliamentary select committee is currently hearing public submissions on legislation that would give women access to abortions until 20 weeks’ pregnancy without having to go through current legal hoops, largely remove abortion from the Crimes Act and allow for the creation of “safe zones” around clinics to keep protesters away.

The legislation passed its first reading 94 votes to 23 in August and politicians now need to consider what changes could be made before it returns for a second vote.

Sir Bill and his wife, Doctor Mary English, spoke to the committee on Wednesday, the former, in graphic detail, describing the process of some late-term abortions and calling it “extreme violence”.

The pair also raised concerns the wording of the law would open health workers with conscientious objections to abortions to be pushed out of their jobs.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/bill-english-returns-to-parliament-to-protest-abortion-law-changes/