{"id":5841,"date":"2014-06-19T05:52:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T12:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5841"},"modified":"2018-03-05T22:38:29","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T06:38:29","slug":"new-zealand-green-party-will-force-referral-for-abortion-for-non-medical-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5841","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Green Party will force referral for abortion for non-medical reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Murphy*<\/a><\/p>\n

The Green Party of New Zealand has published a position paper <\/a>that\u00a0includes a number of statements concerning abortion in the country.\u00a0 The\u00a0paper notes that the law now requires that abortion must be approved by two physicians on grounds that the procedure is necessary to preserve the woman’s mental or physical health or because of fetal disability.\u00a0The party\u00a0states that, since “99% of abortions are approved on ‘mental health’ grounds,” the current legal situation is ‘dishonest’.\u00a0\u00a0This seems to be\u00a0a frank admission that 99% of abortions are not, in fact,\u00a0necessary to ensure mental or physical health.<\/p>\n

If it forms a government, the party would decriminalize the procedure completely up to 20 weeks gestation, while continuing “current practice” beyond that point.\u00a0 In addition, the position paper states that “to prevent coercion either for or against abortion,” it will:<\/p>\n

Ensure medical oversight agencies, such as the Medical Council, maintain, publicise and enforce codes of ethics mandating that personal beliefs (including religious, political and moral) are protected, however the practitioner is required to refer the patient to a neutral practitioner in a timely manner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Three points about this proposal are of interest.<\/p>\n

First: it implies that a physician willing to provide an abortion is “neutral” with respect to the procedure, while a physician unwilling to do so is not.\u00a0 This is incorrect.\u00a0 To take a position either for or against the acceptability of abortion involves a moral or ethical judgement,\u00a0just as a moral or\u00a0ethical judgement is involved in\u00a0stealing or refusing to steal.<\/p>\n

Second: objecting physicians not infrequently refuse to facilitate morally contested procedures by referral because they believe that doing so makes them complicit in the act.\u00a0\u00a0Demanding that they facilitate abortion by referral is not\u00a0protective of their freedom of conscience or religion.<\/p>\n

Third: if the paper is correct in asserting that\u00a0\u00a0no medical grounds exist for “99%” of abortions now taking place in New Zealand,\u00a0 there would seem to be no reason to compel objecting physicians to refer for the procedure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Murphy* The Green Party of New Zealand has published a position paper that\u00a0includes a number of statements concerning abortion in the country.\u00a0 The\u00a0paper notes that the law now requires that abortion must be approved by two physicians on grounds that the procedure is necessary to preserve the woman’s mental or physical health or because … Continue reading “New Zealand Green Party will force referral for abortion for non-medical reasons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,508,43,9,511],"tags":[3250,293],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-ethical-commentary","category-new-zealand","category-news","category-society-politics","tag-green-party-nz","tag-referral"],"yoast_head":"\r\nNew Zealand Green Party will force referral for abortion for non-medical reasons - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5841\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Zealand Green Party will force referral for abortion for non-medical reasons - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sean Murphy* The Green Party of New Zealand has published a position paper that\u00a0includes a number of statements concerning abortion in the country.\u00a0 The\u00a0paper notes that the law now requires that abortion must be approved by two physicians on grounds that the procedure is necessary to preserve the woman’s mental or physical health or because … Continue reading "New Zealand Green Party will force referral for abortion for non-medical reasons"\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5841\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ConscienceProject\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-19T12:52:48+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-06T06:38:29+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=5841#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=5841\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"New Zealand Green Party will force referral for abortion for non-medical reasons\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-19T12:52:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-06T06:38:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=5841\"},\"wordCount\":348,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Green Party (NZ)\",\"referral\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Abortion\",\"Ethical Commentary\",\"New Zealand\",\"News\",\"Society & Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=5841#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=5841\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=5841\",\"name\":\"New Zealand Green Party will force referral for abortion for non-medical reasons - 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