Unwanted babies “not a precious commodity"

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32660, 16 July 1971, Page 5

Unwanted babies “not a precious commodity"

Unwanted babies were not a precious commodity—there were too many in the community already, said Dr D. Anderson, a Christchurch psychiatrist, during a panel discussion on abortion law reform on Wednesday evening.

Dr Anderson said he was often asked by doctors to examine patients who did not want to go through with their pregancies. In his opinion, he said, women who did not want their babies made bad mothers.

Children bom to such women suffered from psychiatric problems, it had been found. However, abortion must remain a medical decision rather than a legal one, he said. “It is still a risky operation with dangers of haemorrhage and infection, and because of this must be a medical matter.” PANEL MEMBERS

The panel discussion was held by the Bryndwr Play Centre and chaired by the Rev. B. Mackie. Panel members were Mrs Nancy Sutherland, president of the Christchurch Parents Centre;' Mrs Ann MacAlloon, a former solicitor and now mother of a young family; Dr R. V. Nicoll, a general practitioner; and Mr T. Young, a parent and husband of a play centre superviser.

Opening the discussion, Mrs MacAlloon said that under the Crimes Act, 1961, an abortion -could be performed in New Zealand only

when continuation of pregnancy would endanger the mother’s physical or meptal health. This was, she said, a law that was open to some interpretation, particularly the points about physical and mental health. However, there were other factors, Mrs MacAlloon said. “One is that the foetus is human and is. therefore, entitled to be protected. And there are other and better ways of dealing with the problem than by liberalising the abortion laws.” The first, she said, was a greater understanding of contraception and greater availability of it—particularly as the oral contraceptive improved. Second, adequate sex education in school and instruction on human relationships —so that every sexual action resulted from a mutual decision and responsibility—was needed.

Third, if a child was born out of wedlock unwanted, then support from the State tor the mother by way of a monetary endowment, child care, and domestic help should be given. NO STIGMA "There is no longer legally a stigma to being bom out 6t Wedlock, but ft is the task of each individual to ensure there is no stigma socially,” Mrs MacAlloon said. Mrs Sutherland said that the attitude of the "old morality” as it was now called surrounded pre-marital sex with three fears. “These were the fears of venereal disease, pregnancy, and hellfire,” she said. These fears had now almost disappeared. Mrs Sutherland disagreed with Mrs MacAlloon’s statement that the foetus is a human being. "The embryo cannot see, hear, or feel and is utterly dependent on the mother for life. To use the term ‘baby’ is completely misleading,” Mrs Sutherland said.

Illegal abortions in New Zealand, she said, could be divided into two categories—those for the rich, and those for the poor.

“Poor women and girls have to undergo operations

in unhygienic conditions and in an atmosphere charged with fear, while women with greater financial means can have abortions performed by a qualified doctor in a hospital or clinic,” she said. To say that abortion was, in the religious sense, taking a human life with a soul was complete nonsense, Mrs Sutherland said* “Nobody regards miscarriage—a spontaneous abortion—as murder or even accidental death, but if an embryo at the tame stage of development is aborted, it is looked upon as the taking of a human life.”

No law that was not supported by large sections of the community could be termed a good law. “The fact that the abortion law in New Zealand is being successfully flouted by women with the knowledge and financial resources to do so makes it a bad law,” said Mrs Sutherland. OPPOSED Dr Nicoll said he was opposed to abortion laws being liberalised and was in favour of better use and availability of contraception techniques. "The only ground that I favour abortion on is if greater harm is going to bar caused to the mother by going through with the pregnancy than if the pregnancy was terminated,” he said.