‘Rights for the unborn’

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 2

‘Rights for the unborn’

PA Wellington Proponents of a Bill of Rights had yet to propose protection for the unborn child, the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, told the annual conference of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child in Wellington yesterday. Mr Bolger said the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Mr Palmer, was proposing a Bill of Rights, yet he had voted to remove the rights of the

unborn child last year. “I for one would not give the drafting of a Bill of Rights to someone who last year voted to remove what limited rights unborn children now had under law,” Mr Bolger said. Mr Bolger asked if rights could not be given to the unborn child, what rights could be given to others. “If it is unacceptable for purely social reasons to kill healthy, unborn children, what is the next step?” he

asked, referring to the status of the handicapped and elderly. S.P.U.C. had won the scientific battle, but it now had to win the hearts of the people. Besides lobbying members of Parliament, S.P.U.C. should now concentrate on bodies such as the Law Society and the Medical Association, he said. “You must challenge them to work through the legal, medical, and ethical issues,” he said.