PRESS RELEASE

UPDATE PRESS RELEASE BY CAUSE FOR JUSTICE: 15 NOVEMBER 2019  

* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * 

SUBJECT : VOICE OF THE UNBORN BABY – SECOND / FINAL DAY OF COURT HEARING 

The Pretoria High Court resumed the hearing of the Voice of the Unborn Baby (VotUB) court case this morning. Yesterday’s proceedings concluded after all the parties presented their arguments to the Court. Today, the First and Second Applicants delivered their respective replies to the other parties’ – the Respondents and the First, Second and Third amici curiae – arguments.

The First Applicant – the Voice of the Unborn Baby NPC – concentrated on the constitutional rights of bereaved parents (specifically their right to dignity, privacy and equality) who lose their unborn child prior to 26 weeks of gestation in the womb. Second Applicant (also the Intervening Party) – the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban – emphasized the right to freedom of religion, which includes the right to live/act in accordance with one’s sincerely held beliefs (whether religious or non-religious). This morning, both Applicants emphasized that the medical construct of viability is irrelevant to the issue of whether the bodily remains of an unborn child should be buried.

Having heard all the parties, the Judge will now consider the parties’ written submissions (contained in the filed court papers) and oral arguments presented in Court. She indicated to the parties that she expects to deliver her ruling during the first term of 2020.

While Cause for Justice (CFJ) – the First amicus curiae – acknowledges and supports the fundamental rights of grieving parents and religious communities, its arguments focused on an equally important constitutional issue which it believes to be at the heart of the VotUB matter: The foundational constitutional value of human dignity and its implications for the value of pre-natal human life, and by extension the dignity with which the bodily remains of babies who die before birth (irrespective of gestational development) should be treated.

[UPDATE PRESS RELEASE ENDS]

For further queries, contact CFJ at:

Email: info@causeforjustice.org

Tel: 074 355 0775