Copeland Gordon: Care of Children Bill — Instruction to Committee Procedure In Committee 
Copeland Gordon: Care of Children Bill — Instruction to Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16652] 
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
: 
 I will be voting tonight in favour of the Supplementary Order Paper introduced by my colleague Murray Smith and also for the Supplementary Order Paper introduced by Judith Collins. I want to congratulate both members on the considerable effort they have put into them. It is difficult for me to imagine a more intimate moment in a child-parent relationship than the decision to terminate a pregnancy through abortion when a girl is less than 16 years of age. It is tragic of course for the life of the unborn child which is brought to an end. It is traumatic for the girl having to make such a serious decision at such a young age as she is physically a woman but psychologically and mentally still a child. It is emotional for the parents who as adults are so aware of all the ramifications that will flow from that critical situation. 
It is very wrong for the State to intrude into the affairs of a family at such a time. But that is exactly what we do if we do not change the law tonight to permit parental notification in those circumstances. A family needs to draw together in love at such a time and the parents do not need to be kept in the dark. 
I want to share with members a story from my own experience and I mention it for the benefit of those who claim there is no problem with the present law. I am very good friends with a solo mother a wonderful woman who discovered some time after the event that her daughter of 14 had had an abortion. When she came to talk to her daughter about that her daughter said: “Mum when I found myself pregnant I felt very guilty. When I had the abortion I felt very guilty. But the greatest burden of guilt I have been carrying with me mum is the fact that you didn’t know.” 
That is exactly the situation that applies in this country. The framers of the existing law which has been here since 1977 did not envisage State sanction and in fact State-created deception and secrecy at such a time. Yes the law does uphold the right of the girl herself to make the final choice and not be forced into an abortion against her will or forced to give birth against her will. But the presumption was always that either way the parents would be involved. Never in those lawmakers’ wildest dreams—and I have spoken to people who were here at the time—did they envisage that a veil of secrecy would descend in such situations as the one I have described tonight and that such situations would even actually occur. It never crossed their minds. 
From that point of view those who claim that this law is settled law that it should not be changed and that it has had no problems are either completely out of touch or having made up their minds do not want to be confused with the facts. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Oh! That’s rich. 
GORDON COPELAND 
: Judicial bypass which is suggested in the bill I say to Minister Rick Barker would solve the problem he has alluded to tonight. I do not know whether Minister Barker has read the Supplementary Order Paper but he did not mention the fact that the Supplementary Order Papers of Judith Collins and my colleague have a judicial bypass system. I believe that that is vitally important especially in the case of violence or incest. Such heinous crimes against young girls must not be left in the dark or swept under the rug as they used to be in the Pitcairn Islands. The culprits must be brought to and made to face the full force of the law in such circumstances and I tell members tonight in this Parliament that that is not happening. We have a problem in this country with incest and it is swept under the carpet and this existing law is being used as a means of keeping that information from the police and from the authorities involved. 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: Claptrap! Absolute claptrap! 
GORDON COPELAND 
: It is absolutely correct and I can give the member case histories showing that that is exactly what has happened. 
Finally let us not forget tonight those brave young women who chose to give birth against the wishes of their parents. If we visit the Susan Baragwanath school in Porirua we will find many magnificent young women who are now mothers and whose parents wanted them to abort their children.