(Right to Life New Zealand) Right to Life continues to request that the government amend the Abortion Legislation Act regulations, to require abortion providers to provide the reasons for the abortion on the notification form.
We celebrate World Down Syndrome Day on 21 March 2026. The theme for this year is: Together against loneliness.
The ultimate loneliness for these beautiful precious infants of God is to be killed in their mother’s womb and being deprived of their mother’s love and protection.
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Right to Life believes that the government seeks to withhold the knowledge that the vast majority of abortions inflicted on women in N.Z. are on healthy babies in normal pregnancies, and are for socio-economic reasons, masquerading as threats to mental health, from the community.
Right to life is passionate in defence of women’s health and rejects the fiction that we can protect a woman’s health by killing her precious children.
17,964 abortions performed in New Zealand in 2025 - why?
Health NZ recently advised Right to Life, in response to an Official Information Act request, that there was a provisional total of 17,964 abortions performed in New Zealand in 2025.
There is a complete absence of any information on the reasons why these children were killed.
Why were no reasons for these abortions given?
The Ministry of Health abortion notification form, required to be completed by abortion providers, provides detailed information about the mother of the child killed, but absolutely no information about the reason for her abortion.
Right to Life believes that by withholding information on the reasons for all abortions, the government will be able to promote abortion as “health care”, to deny the humanity of the unborn child by promoting the lie that the unborn child is a “product of conception” and the fiction that the unborn child is not a human being endowed with a right to life until it is born.
Right to Life questions the Ministry of Health on their following reasons for declining to request the reasons for abortions from abortion providers:
- Privacy concerns: Asking individuals to disclose the specific reasons for their abortion can be seen as a violation of their privacy and personal autonomy.
- Sensitivity of the issue: The decision to have an abortion is deeply personal and often involves complex emotional and social factors. Governments generally avoid collecting data that could be perceived as intrusive or judgmental.
- Focus on health services: The primary focus of abortion data collection is on providing necessary health services and ensuring access to safe abortion care.
Right to Life questions the Ministry’s defence of privacy in respect to abortion.
The killing of a defenceless and innocent unborn child is a matter of public concern and cannot be hidden under the veil of privacy.
Down syndrome children at risk
Right to Life believes that the government is committed to eliminating the births of ALL Down syndrome children in New Zealand, by killing children with Down syndrome in their mother’s womb, any time up to birth.
According to the Down Syndrome Association, 71 % of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome as a result of the government’s search and destroy screening programme, are killed before birth. As a consequence only 41 babies with Down syndrome are born in New Zealand on average each year. Right to Life believes that an estimated 200 babies with Down syndrome are killed in New Zealand each year before birth.
Tweet This: Right to Life New Zealand believes that the government is committed to eliminating the births of ALL Down syndrome children in New Zealand.
The Ministry claims that there is no evidence of sex selected abortions taking place in New Zealand.
Research in Australia published in PLOS Global Public Health reveals that sex selected abortions are taking place in Australia.
Sex-selective abortion
Right to Life believes that it is reasonable to assume that sex selected abortions are also taking place in New Zealand.
According to the UNFPA, there are more than 142 million women missing in the world due to abortions due to sex selection. This is appalling violence against women.
In 2020 the N.Z. parliament passed the extremist Abortion Legislation Act, and shamefully defeated an amendment to outlaw sex selected abortions by 89 to 29. There is no law in New Zealand prohibiting sex selection abortions, nor is there any requirement for a woman to disclose that she seeks an abortion for sex selection purposes, i.e. because she does not want a boy, or a girl.
The law contains the ineffective weak statement opposing abortion solely for sex selection, this statement has no legal standing.
When will the government address this important human rights issue by amending the Abortion Legislation Act 2020, to outlaw sex selection abortions?
Editor's note: This article was published by Right to Life New Zealand and is reprinted with permission.
