Collins Judith: Care of Children Bill — Instruction to Committee Procedure In Committee 
Collins Judith: Care of Children Bill — Instruction to Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16643] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 The people of this country have spoken about under-age abortions. In response to a  
New Zealand Herald 
 poll that asked whether people thought that if a girl under the age of 16 went to a doctor to seek an abortion and did not want her parents to know the doctor should inform her parents 71.1 percent of the people surveyed said yes and that does not even take into account those who were not parents. When those people were asked whether the law should make it mandatory for the doctor to inform the girl’s parents 60.7 percent said yes. What is the Government’s response to that? It has said that the law is working nicely thank you. The Government likes 400-and-something girls under the age of 16 years to have abortions every year. It likes to know that the parents may or may not even know about that because it thinks that parents do not need to know. 
I have put forward two Supplementary Order Papers on this matter. Supplementary Order Paper 292 requires three things. First it requires notification to a parent or guardian but if the girl objects to that—and this is very important—there is written notification through to a judge. The reason for written notification is that under the current law judges are not involved where those girls are living in abusive homes or maybe are pregnant because of incest. In fact I am told by some general practitioners that some of them already speak to the Department of Child Youth and Family Services and refer a matter to the police. That is a good thing but unfortunately there is no requirement on them to do so. 
I had a meeting today with the Family Planning Association—a group that we would think would know all about this issue as it works with it all the time—and the association said to me that there are some really good protocols that are used in the UK in respect of under-age abortions and notifying parents. It said we could have that here. Then I pointed out to the association that we are already supposed to have that here. In fact I have here the recommended referral process for general practitioners for suspected child abuse and neglect which includes sexual abuse. The Family Planning Association did not even know about that—I had to show it to the association. I said the recommended referral process had been around for only 2 years so maybe that was why the association did not know about it. That is the sort of level of commitment that we have in this country to this issue. We have none and the Government says that that is fine. 
My Supplementary Order Paper goes on to state that if a judge believes that a girl is in need of care and protection or considers she is the victim of crime or sexual violation then the judge has to act. She must be referred to a social worker or to the police or to both. That must happen because the current law does not protect those most vulnerable girls. I have taken into account the concerns that many concerned professionals have conveyed to me. They said they did not want those girls to have to turn up in front of a judge and I have taken that into account. That is why I have changed my July amendment to an amendment that requires written notification. 
The other point is that the current law affects good parents as well as bad parents—it ignores good parents as well as bad parents. I take it as a real issue when people say to me that any good parent would have a good relationship with his or her child. Well how many young girls of 14 years would want to go home and say to their mum: “Oh by the way Mum I am pregnant and I want to have an abortion.” Who would want to do that to her mother? No girl that I would want to have! The fact is that young girls do not want to say that but the trouble is that they need to say it because they need to be able to have the love and support of their parents. Dad may even shout about it because men often do shout about those things when they are really crying inside and that is what they want to do. So what if they shout about it? The fact is that they have to know. Those girls are so vulnerable—if they were not vulnerable they would not be in that situation. The current law states nobody cares and girls can make those decisions because the general practitioners will do abortions. It is not a general practitioner’s role to be a parent. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.