Pregnancy After Rape

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30156, 13 June 1963, Page 3

Pregnancy After Rape

Sir, —I read in Saturday's issue that, according to Mrs Cattell, of the Society for the Protection of Home and Family, of the 300 illegitimate births in Christchurch in a year, some were the result of cases of rape. Possible pregnancy is one of the natural biological consequences of rape, but in what circumstances are such pregnancies allowed to proceed to full term? In some civilised countries the victim of rape is given the choice to abort if she wishes, the view being taken that it is sadistic of society to expect a woman to suffer an unwanted pregnancy engendered through no free consent on her part Does Mrs Cattell’s remark mean that pregnancies are not terminable on ethical or psychological grounds in New Zealand? If this is the case, who are the pressure groups imposing their morality as an additional burden on the victims of sexual assault? I hope I have misunderstood the import of Mrs Cattell’s remark.—Yours, etc.,

NEWCOMER. June 3, 1963. [The press liaison officer for the Canterbury division of the British Medical Association (Dr. A. C. Sandston) said: “In New Zealand, as in Britain, the law states that a medical practitioner is guilty of criminal abortion who terminates a pregnancy for any other reason than for the preservation of the life of the mother. In 1961, when the Crimes Bill was being consolidated, the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association recommended some modification of this clause, but this proved unacceptable to Parliament, probably because it was felt that any relaxation might lead to much wider practice of therapeutic abortion. British medico-legal history has one well-known example of a medical practitioner standing trial after his terminating the pregnancy in an authenticated case of rape. He was acquitted, but in similar circumstances any doctor is liable to have to justify his action in a court of law. Of the illegitimate pregnancy cases in Christchurch, very few indeed make the claim that rape was the cause, and in no known case in recent years has the rape been authenticated. I ’]