Part one of the panel discussion I participated in on parental consent/notification for abortion airs on Pacific Viewpoint tonight (Tuesday 8 December) on Triangle TV at 7:30pm. Part two will air Tuesday 15 December at 7:30pm.
The episodes will also be aired on Stratos (Freeview 21 & Sky Digital 89) tomorrow (Wednesday 9 December) at 8pm and the following Wednesday at the same time.
The panel features Dr Paul Hutchison, MP for Hunua and former member of the Abortion Supervisory Committee; Bev Adair, spokesperson for Family First, Reverend Tavale Matai’a, a couple of other women and me! In tonight’s episode I feature as an audience member and go a round with Dr Hutchison. Next week, I am a panel member.
I have no idea how it will run. Panel discussions are frustrating because you cannot hit everything and you have to manage to get everything you want to say out cohesively in the little snippets of time you do get but nevertheless is was fun filming it!
Recommended Reading:
During, Sherwin & Hutchison on Backstreet Abortion
Tags: Abortion · Bev Adair · Pacific Viewpoint · Paul Hutchison · Reverend Tavale Matai'a7 Comments
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Paul Hutchison clearly missed the point. He argued that if a young person is given an abortion there should be no legal requirement for parents to give consent. The problem is that this law contradicts the way we treat every other surgical or medical procedure a young person might undergo. The law, for example, requires parental consent if a child were to break their leg and need medical treatment; in fact, for a school to hand out paracetamol to a student, parental consent is required. The obvious question then is why we treat abortion differently?
Hutchison’s response, that in a minority of cases girls seeking abortions might be in abusive situations at home, is clearly flawed. After all, a minority of young people with broken legs or who require paracetamol, need this medical treatment because their parent broke their leg or harmed them so that they require paracetamol yet the government does not treat broken legs and hand out paracetamol to these children without their parents consent and I don’t believe it plans to. It is only in the case of abortion that this peculiar logic is taken seriously.
I will watch this with interest. There are two issues here – notification and consent. I hope they are address separately.
I will comment more after i see the show.
I just discovered the show is online. You can watch it at the link below.
.-= My last blog-post ..View Pacific Viewpoint TV Panel on Abortion & Parental Consent Here (Feat. Madeleine) =-.
The issue went all over the place Chuck and frequently off point so no, they do not address the issues separately. Issues routinely got conflated but I still feel like the program was overall a good discussion. Everyone managed to be respectful and some good points came out.
Madeleine, as I said on, “View Pacific Viewpoint TV Panel on Abortion & Parental”, too many issues are getting bundled into one. This makes more difficult to challenge Dr Hutchison.
I am not sure what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to state what legislation you would like to see whether it is achievable or not or are you trying to promote legislation that is achievable?
I just had a second look at the debate. It looks like the last amendment to the Care of Children Act referred to girls under 18. Any law should refer to the age of consent not 18 as it would be unworkable and unenforceable.
Putting aside the age issue I doubt if consent would gain much support for practical reasons. Would both parents have to be give consent whether they are living together or not? What would happen if parents disagreed?
You would be on far safer ground attacking Hutchison’s arguments on the basis of parental notification for underage girls.
For a start 12 and 13 year old girl are not women even young women.
Hutchison’s two main arguments against notification are abuse and incest. I will deal with them in turn.
The way the law works now is that underage girls are told at school that if the contraception supplied directly or indirectly through the school fails that an abortion can be arranged. The girls would know that all they have to say is that they fear they will get a hiding if their parents are told of the pregnancy. Now it cannot be argued that this has never happened in the past or could not happen occasionally in the future. My question to Dr Hutchison would be in the past when a pregnant underage girl expressed fear of her parent’s violent reaction was mediation offered as recommended by Reverend Tavale Matai’a?
If authorities are aware of a child’s genuine fear that her parents will severely beat her if she displeases them are they acting responsibly by arranging a secret abortion and sending her back to the same environment? What if the parents find out about the abortion or maybe discover her birth control pills?
In regards the issue of incest I fail to comprehend Dr Hutchison’s logic. If the girl is a victim of incest by the father or step-father does he suggest a secret abortion and sending her back for more of the same? Surely the sensible thing would be to involve the police and make certain that the girl is in no way at risk.
Something that Dr Hutchison has failed to address is cases where a serious criminal offence has occurred. It is against the law for any male to have sex with a girl under 16. In most cases the boy would be around the age of the girl or not too much older. I do not think many would suggest sending such boys to prison for up to 7 years would be appropriate. However, in some cases the male involved is considerable older and a serious offence has occurred. I would put it to Dr Hutchison that in such cases secret abortions would cover up such crimes.
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