Editing Gordon Copeland (section)

=== Opposition to abortion and to voluntary euthanasia ===

Subsequently, Copeland protested against the establishment of a hosted website for Australian [[euthanasia]]-activist [[Philip Nitschke]]'s [[EXIT (Australia)|Exit International]] organisation, and approached the New Zealand Ministers of Immigration and Information Technology, as well as the [[New Zealand Police]], seeking to frustrate Nitschke's attempts to resettle in that country.

Copeland wanted to introduce a private member's ballot bill designed to require women seeking abortion to undergo mandatory counselling covering both proceeding with the [[pregnancy]] and [[abortion]] prior to making a decision. This bill, the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion (Informed Consent) Bill, resembled [[Australian Capital Territory]] legislation repealed several years ago. Women do not have to consult optional counselling services under the [[Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977]]. As a devout Catholic, Copeland espoused [[opposition to the legalization of abortion|anti-abortion]] views in debates about reproductive freedom for women, and believed that women did not receive relevant information related to abortion procedures, hence the title to the Bill, which was never drawn from the ballot for private members bills.