News

NEW ZEALAND, December 6, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Doctors cannot be forced to do abortion referrals or give medical advice about abortion, according to a new ruling by a New Zealand judge.

Justice Alan McKenzie of the Wellington High Court ruled that physicians’ guidelines proposed by the Medical Council of New Zealand exceeded the nation’s Contraception, Sterilization, and Abortion Act as well as the Health Practitioners Competency Act, which do not require doctors to give advice on abortion to their patients.

The existing legislation, ruled McKenzie, “must be seen as a maximum obligation and not one which may be supplemented by the imposition of professional standards.”

The ruling also strikes down a provision in the New Zealand Medical Association’s code of ethics, according to Right to Life New Zealand.

The provision states, “Doctors should accept the right of a patient to be referred for further management in situations where there is a moral or clinical disagreement about the most appropriate course to take.”

Ken Orr of Right to Life New Zealand applauded the decision, noting that it “upholds the supremacy of an informed conscience.”

“Abortion is a crime against humanity, it is a violent assault on a woman and her child that no law can legitimize,” Orr added. “Doctors are the guardians and servants of human life. There is a grave and clear obligation to oppose such laws by conscientious objection. Right to Life applauds those doctors who are faithful to the highest traditions of their profession and who refuse to be involved in the killing of the innocent.”