Pro-Life World View | January 24, 2025

The Beatriz Case: an historic victory for the Latin American pro-life movement

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights – covering 25 member countries – has comprehensively rejected the Beatriz Case supported by the pro-abortion lobby who, because of the makeup of the Court, had hoped to establish a “right to abortion” throughout Latin America.  Instead, the Court’s decision proved a resounding win for the pro-life cause. Key to the outcome were the collective efforts of pro-life organisations who exposed how the abortion lobby used falsehoods to build their case.  The linked article provides an illuminating summary of the key findings from this momentous case.

Ways to be a pro-life family

“What does it mean to respect life and to be pro-life?”  More than simply being against abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, the key is to be actively pro-life.  The linked article offers 34 pro-life, eminently doable activities that families can undertake, all of which can be adapted to the New Zealand setting.

Should parents be able to opt their children out of gender curriculum?

According to the latest annual Becket’s Religious Freedom Index survey in the US, 77% of Americans believe that parents should be able to opt their children out of gender and sexuality-related curricula that violate their religious beliefs. 

The Church teaches with clarity that parents are the primary and principal educators of their children (Gravissimum Educationis. 3).  Therefore, parents “have the right to choose the formative tools that respond to their convictions and to seek those means that will help them best to fulfil their duty as educators, in the spiritual and religious sphere also. Public authorities have the duty to guarantee this right and to ensure the concrete conditions necessary for it to be exercised.” (Compendium of Social Doctrine, 240).  

UN group says governments must force medical personnel to provide abortions

In a new report, the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls, consisting of five feminist activists and academics, claims that governments have an international obligation to force all hospitals to provide abortions, including religious hospitals.

The feminist authors, described as “UN human rights experts,” claim that “Denial of abortion is not acceptable, as the right to a safe and legal abortion is protected under international law.”  However, as the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) points out: “No widely ratified international human rights treaty includes a right to abortion, either expressly or by implication.”

Patient had assisted death in farm paddock after being refused procedure at rest home

Under an emotive headline and in an article heavily weighted in favour of the practice of euthanasia/assisted suicide, the New Zealand Herald reports that the Ministry of Health is proposing that organizations – such as hospices and rest homes, including religious institutions – must be compelled either to allow euthanasia/assisted suicide to take place on their premises or to arrange for it to be carried out elsewhere. However, the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre said the “current ability for institutions to exercise conscience must be protected.”

Michelle Kaufman, National Director of Family Life International, commented: “Catholics must resist such unjust legislation. Saint John Paul II spelled out the ethical position of the Church in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae – The Gospel of Life (§73): ‘In the Old Testament, precisely in regard to threats against life, we find a significant example of resistance to the unjust command of those in authority. After Pharaoh ordered the killing of all newborn males, the Hebrew midwives refused. “They did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live” (Ex 1:17).”

Longtime former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has died at 67

Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, died on Monday, aged just 67, after a battle with aggressive brain cancer.  During her 12-year presidency of Planned Parenthood (2006 to 2018), Richards was ultimately responsible for more than 3.5 million abortions. 

Her primary focus at Planned Parenthood was to drive up abortion provision, to which she succeeded. In addition, she promoted and increased access to sex education, contraception, and abortifacients.  Richards played a key role in politicising abortion and so-called “sexual health,” falsely claiming, including on RNZ’s Saturday Morning Show during her visit to New Zealand, that classroom sex education and the promotion of contraception reduces the incidence of abortion.1

Michelle Kaufman, Director of Family Life International, says her influence was international and has noted: “Cecile Richards came to New Zealand in 2013 as a key-note speaker at Family Planning NZ’s conference.  It is clear to me that she was instrumental in the strategic direction of the abortion lobby in New Zealand and, in particular, of Family Planning (now known as Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa). We must pray for Cecile’s soul. Her death reminds us that we must pray continually for the conversion of all those who are entrenched in this barbaric act of violence against our most innocent.”

¹ The impact of sex education mandates on teenage pregnancy: International evidence, Paton et al Health Economics – 2020; 29:790–807

No change to abortion laws, promises PM and newly-appointed health minister

Both Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and newly-appointed Health Minister Simeon Brown say there will be no change to New Zealand’s abortion law. The double-down on National’s position came after venomous opposition by the abortion lobby to Brown’s appointment to the Health portfolio due to his pro-life views. Brown has a notable public record opposing abortion, which dates back to when he led the university group Pro-Life Auckland.

National Director of Family Life International Michelle Kaufman had this to say: “Such a definitive stand to keep New Zealand’s barbaric abortion laws just as they are is a great abandonment of the weakest and most vulnerable human beings in our society. The pre-born children of New Zealand need protection, and for National to reiterate that it will do nothing, cowering to the abortion lobby, is disgraceful. Simeon Brown holds a difficult position, so we must keep him in our prayers so that he may stand strong and implement life-affirming policies wherever possible for the sake of our nation’s pre-born children.”

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