That is the headline to Karl Du Fresne’s opinion piece in the Dominion Post today!

Du Fresne begins with the following…

OPINION: It went unnoticed by the media, but Justice Minister Simon Power recently issued a press statement announcing that Rosemary Fenwicke had decided not to seek reappointment to the Abortion Supervisory Committee.

There’s a story behind this. Dr Fenwicke, a member of the three-person committee since 2007, is an abortion certifying consultant who earns fees by approving the termination of pregnancies.

She is also a former medical director of the Family Planning Association, a major abortion referral agency.

She was nominated for the committee in 2007 by the Labour government of Helen Clark, whose pro-abortion sympathies are well known.

The appointment seemed not only an unconscionable conflict of interest, but a calculated insult to the many New Zealanders who regard abortion as deeply repugnant.

Were they really expected to believe the government couldn’t find someone who didn’t have a material stake in the abortion business? (Certifying consultants were paid $5 million in 2008, and even pro-abortionists acknowledge it’s a lucrative business.)

The very nature of her professional activity suggested Dr Fenwicke was not neutral on this divisive issue, yet Parliament rejected an attempt by MP Gordon Copeland, a staunch opponent of abortion, to overturn her nomination.

(It was supposedly a conscience vote but Labour MPs were instructed to support Dr Fenwicke, meaning her appointment was assured.)

The issue didn’t excite much interest at the time. Even MPs with misgivings about abortion have little stomach for debates on the subject and probably wanted to get the matter out of the way with as little fuss as possible.

Besides, they don’t want to be reminded that the administration of the abortion law is a travesty – a point I believe was borne out in a High Court judgment by Justice Forrest Miller in 2008.

New Zealand effectively has an abortion-on-request regime, something Parliament never intended when it passed the Sterilisation, Contraception and Abortion Act in 1977.

The abortion supervisory committee’s annual reports show that more than 98 per cent of abortions are approved by people like Dr Fenwicke on the spurious basis that the mother’s mental health is at risk.

That Dr Fenwicke should have been appointed to the committee charged with ensuring the act is upheld demonstrated what a grotesque sham the administration of the abortion law has become.

Fortunately, anti-abortionists refused to let the matter rest. They lobbied against the renewal of Dr Fenwicke’s appointment and the Government appears to have recognised the force of their argument.

You can find the rest of the sobering piece, which you should read… HERE!

Always Informing, For the Always Reforming, From the Land of the Long White Cloud

Man of Spin

H/T: Bob McCoskrie on Facebook