Garcia PauloPAULO GARCIA (National): Thank you Mr Speaker for this opportunity to speak about the Abortion Legislation Bill and the committee report that is now before us. I stand with sadness with a heart filled with tribulation and pain because once again I stand to argue against a bill that seeks to enable the ending—the taking—of a human life by another human being. I remind myself and this House and all those watching these proceedings that I do not stand alone. There are many who hear and understand and support the position of not voting this legislation through—people who feel the same pain that I feel people that I stand and speak for now. We have heard many statements focused on the details of the bill and that women who undertake abortions should not be stigmatised as criminals—this despite no woman having been charged with unlawful abortion in the history of this Act. We have heard that the bill is not intended to liberalise abortion up until birth—this despite the bill allowing abortion beyond the current legislation limit of 20 weeks without an upper limit. The bill opens the door for the abortion of babies with not just severe abnormalities but also moderate ones making disabled unborn children very vulnerable under the proposed law. The current law explicitly prevents abortions on the basis of fetal abnormality up to 20 weeks but that the proposed law does not do the same represents a major step backwards in terms of disability rights. We've heard that safe zones are necessary to prevent intimidation and unseemly conduct despite all activity near abortion centres being perceived to be peaceful and non-intimidating and non-threatening and that many nurses and health professionals are in support of this bill when to my personal knowledge many many many nurses and health professionals do not support this bill. I would like to specifically point out that this great effort for the current legislation to be amended to allow for abortion beyond 20 weeks including making standards more available setting standards and ensuring that there are competent staff—all of these cost time and effort and resources yet the committee acknowledges that they have heard from women who might not have chosen abortion if they had received more support. There are no mandatory provisions in the bill for ensuring women are given information about the consequences or risks of having an abortion are made aware of all their options or are enabled to receive the practical support needed to help them make a different choice. There are no mandatory provisions proposed for ensuring women receive emotional and psychological support after an abortion should an abortion have been gone through. Neither the bill nor the committee report seeks to ensure that assistance is to be provided to the many women and their partners who often have to deal with the coercive realities that surround many abortions. As the father of four daughters an uncle to many and a friend to many families and as a husband who loves his wife dearly I believe that for a woman to remain undecided and unsure of whether to continue her pregnancy to the full term and to have her baby actually born in her arms cuddled squeezed hugged and kissed and cared for it is because she does not have the support she needs from her partner and/or the whānau around her and the lack of support makes sharing a life with another human being so fearful and inconceivable as to make her consider terminating it. I believe that this is where time and resources should be spent. I finish with a quote from the New York Times quoting a Harvard medical professor who said that we pass through different stages as we grow and that a baby of five weeks in the womb differs from the newborn but so does the toddler differ from the teen. … but we don't pass from person to non-person or vice versa.""