Majority of Canterbury Women Not Counselled Before Abortion

Troubling news from Right to Life. Over 70% of women considering abortion in Canterbury have not received counselling prior to the abortion taking place. Two questions I have to raise before I continue with an excerpt from the press release. Firstly, if there is nothing wrong with abortion, then why is it restricted at all, and secondly, if it is simply a matter of surgical removal of worthless tissue, then why is counselling so important.

"More than two thirds of the women who had an abortion at Lyndhurst and Christchurch Women’s Hospitals in 2006/2007 did not receive counselling at the hospitals before having an abortion.

The Canterbury District Health Board recently provided Right to Life with statistics under the Official Information Act, 1982. The Board advised that 2504 women had an abortion at their licensed facilities in the year ending 30 June 2007. Of this total, only 705 women considering an abortion received counselling at their facilities. This is deplorable; these statistics reveal a human tragedy for vulnerable women and their unborn children. Women are the second victims of abortion; they are entitled to be fully informed of alternatives to abortion, the development of their unborn child and the potential physical and psychiatric complications that might result from having an abortion...

...Right to Life believes that the Code of Health Rights may have been breached by the consultants or by other responsible health care personnel involved in the process of providing an abortion at Lyndhurst and Christchurch Hospitals." - RTLNZ

First it's the Abortion Supervisory Committee who are entrusted to overseeing the application of New Zealand's abortion laws. They came under fire when the High Court found that “There is reason to doubt the lawfulness of many abortions authorised by certifying consultants.” (read more here). And now it's the CDHB (Canterbury District Health Board) letting down Canterbury women and babies by allowing so many women (70% plus) to bypass the crucial pre-abortion counselling.