By Voice for Life
Editor’s note. Today Voice for Life displayed 13,285 pairs of Booties outside Parliament as a public memorial of 13,285 little lives who were lost to abortion last year. They write
Since abortion was legalised in New Zealand in 1977, over 500,000 pre-born babies have lost their lives to abortion. Given recent trends, it is likely that an additional roughly 6,000 babies have been aborted already this year.
“Thousands of people, all over New Zealand, have knitted these booties in remembrance of the lives lost to abortion. Each knitted pair of baby booties symbolises little human boys and girls who are vulnerable and need love and protection.”
The following is a press release distributed last month when the official abortion statistics for 2017 were released.
“Today we mourn the 13,285 unborn lives lost, and the even more thousands of women and men whose lives have been touched by abortion,” says Voice for Life National President Jacqui de Ruiter.
“Abortion involves not just the killing of an unborn child, but also a significant loss to us all. We as a community and a nation have lost a part of our future. With 18% of known pregnancies ending in abortion in 2017, we have lost 18% of our future,” states de Ruiter.
For the last 40 years, these annual numbers have risen over 500,000 lost boys and girls – the hollowing out of our youth.
De Ruiter continues, “Alongside the lives lost, we also mourn those thousands of women and men who live with the scars of abortion.”
“Abortion is often sold as a simple solution to a complex problem, but it so rarely is. It is not a solution to abusive relationships, or to a society that doesn’t properly respect and support young and growing families. And abortion can leave in its wake so many more problems than it ever solves.”
Preborn children and their mothers deserve better. Our language needs to be more respectful for a woman’s pregnancy than using terms such as “un-wanted”.
1. We need an open and inclusive conversation about the complex issues surrounding abortion in Aotearoa [the indigenous Polynesians’ name for New Zealand]. Instead of pro-abortion rhetoric from the 1970s, we could start being honest about: post-abortion trauma and harm, lack of informed consent, crisis pregnancy support, open adoption – partner violence and coercion.
It’s time to build authentic counselling and compassionate, means of support for women who seek a safe path forward for themselves and their baby. So that they can make a real choice, separate from the conveyor belt towards abortion.
“Voice for Life promotes the well-being of women and men and advocates for those who can’t speak for themselves and their families,” says de Ruiter.
We must do more to protect pregnant women and preborn children in NZ. Let’s work together towards a nation that is inclusive of all people, especially the vulnerable and powerless. Those without a voice to protect themselves.