Last week Vic Urwin in the Salient letter pages wrote "rights derive from the nature of human beings, and the killing of a foetus just because the mother was too lazy to use contraceptives and just can't be bothered accepting the consequences . . . . "

Leaving aside the matter of "rights" and what consitutes a right, for the moment, let us examine Vic's statements about contraception.

If a woman diligently takes the Pill every day at the same hour throughout her cycle but happens to vomit one day, she could get pregnant. The chances are fairly slim but it could and does happen.

And what then Mr. Urwin? If the woman is fortunate enough and can afford the trip to Australia, she can have a safe legal abortion, but if she is poor then she is condemned either to a backstreet abortion or a life of hardship;

On the question of "rights", Vic Urwin has again misunderstood the application of the phrase "a woman's democratic right". He says it could have been argued that Hitler had a "democratic right" to kill 6 million Jews. A "democratic right" is not a "right" to do whatever you like, that's anarchism, but it is a right to control your own life without sute interference. Examples of this, as I said before, are the right to criticise the government, the right to withdraw your labour and finally the right to control your own reproduction. Abortion is a civil liberty which is, at present, being denied to New Zealand women.

Why are people (especially SPUC people) so afraid of the slogan "abortion—a woman's democratic right"? It is because this slogan emphasises that denying women abortions is not only a fundamental attack on women's rights but also part of the other attacks on the rights of all New Zealanders.

With the introduction of the Commerce Act and the Industrial Relations Act amendments workers no longer have the right to strike. With the passing of the SIS Act, New Zealanders no longer have the right to criticse the government without fear of being spied upon.

Finally, with the passing of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act, women no longer have the right to control their own reproductive lives. All these rights that are being eroded are "democratic" rights.

SPUC people would like to see the abortion issue treated on a purely "moral" level, i.e. their morality will dictate who has (or rather does not have) abortions. But we are not dictating to women who do not wish to have abortions, that they must have them. Conversely we are asking for the democratic right of women to decide whether or not they want an abortion.