Hi <<First Name(s)>>

Welcome to this week's Midweek Update. Please take a few moments to read up on important family stories in the media from both NZ and also overseas over the past couple of weeks. 
The Planned Parenthood story is highly disturbing - and many of you will find it distressing. We certainly did, but it does show the mentality and the practices of the abortion industry. Viewer discretion advised. Of course, the media in NZ are trying to ignore this story. YOU be the news reporter! Pass it on. Post it to Facebook. 
                                   Forward to a friend         

Support For Euthanasia Decreases As Harms Revealed
Media Release 28 July 2015: Family First NZ says that latest Research NZ poll on euthanasia reveals a welcome decrease in support for euthanasia from its previous poll, and believes that support for a law change will continue to fall as the experiences of overseas jurisdictions highlight the harms and abuse of such law changes. “What this poll does highlight is that when we as a country have a robust honest debate about euthanasia, families soon realise that safeguards can only go so far, that coercion is subtle, and that patients will ask themselves why they are not availing themselves of it. The potential for abuse and flouting of procedural safeguards is a strong argument against legalisation. Overseas experience proves that the risk of abuse cannot be eliminated." READ MORE
See also story below - Study: 100 requests for euthanasia for psychiatric reasons in Belgium

1 in 3 Victims of Family Violence Are Male – Research
Media Release 25 July 2015: Family First NZ says that research in association with the Department of Internal Affairs, Alcohol and Drug Association of New Zealand and the Canterbury Men’s Centre has found that 38% of recent victims of family violence in the Canterbury region have been male and that male victims are not gaining support. The researcher says that media coverage has only focused on female victims and that there is reluctance for men to speak up. “This research is no surprise to us or to agencies working with domestic violence. A report released last year says that blaming men for domestic violence is ‘gender bias’. It is time that the focus on family violence was on family instability and breakdown, our violent culture, and the role that alcohol and drugs play in fueling this violence, rather than the one-eyed approach of ‘men as perpetrators and women and children as victims’. The White Ribbon Campaign is well-intentioned, but we need to open both eyes – and present the full picture if we really want to find solutions." READ MORE

The 'Elephant in the Room' with Family Violence
In light of the admission by the government that "the rate of family violence in New Zealand is horrific", perhaps it's time for the government to face up to the real issues that we highlighted above in our media release - "family instability and breakdown, our violent culture, and the role that alcohol and drugs play in fueling this violence".
This article from the Washington Post last year would be a great place to start....

ONE WAY TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN? MARRIED DADS.
The Washington Post 10 June 2014: Obscured in the public conversation about the violence against women is the fact that some other men are more likely to protect women, directly and indirectly, from the threat of male violence: married biological fathers. The bottom line is this: Married women are notably safer than their unmarried peers, and girls raised in a home with their married father are markedly less likely to be abused or assaulted than children living without their own father.
....Marriage is no panacea when it comes to male violence. But married fathers are much less likely to resort to violence than men who are not tied by marriage or biology to a female. And, most fundamentally, for the girls and women in their lives, married fathers provide direct protection by watching out for the physical welfare of their wives and daughters, and indirect protection by increasing the odds they live in safe homes and are not exposed to men likely to pose a threat.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE - and then forward it to your local MP!