Clear abortion law sought

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 3

Clear abortion law sought

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, February 22. Many people felt New Zealand’s abortion laws should be relaxed for the benefit of the majority, an Auckland gynaecologist, Dr A. T. MacFarlane, said today.

But any change would have to include regulations . safeguarding women and preventing the “commercialisation” of abortion, as had happened in Britain, he said. Dr MacFarlane was speaking to about 40 Auckland doctors at a seminar on I obstetrics and gynaecology I at the National Women’s Hospital. Abortion should not be .used as a delayed form of contraception, and if used at i all it should be a last resort, I he said. Abortion was a con- ■ fession of failure in family ■planning schemes. I He told doctors they had an obligation to promote proper family planning. Doctors, nurses, and the public should be educated in con-j traceptive techniques. All terminations of pregnancies should be carried out in public hospitals by trained gynaecologists. And before this could be done, Dr MacFarlane said, the Government would have to provide accommodation and trained medical staff to cope with the increased demand which would automatically follow. He often wondered how much doctors were influenced ■by the possibility of being struck off the register if an abortion they performed was deemed illegal by the General Medical Council. “There is nothing I would : welcome more than a law de-

ciding absolutely which case I should, and which case I should not, terminate.” he said. “New Zealand’s law. as! you know, allows termination of pregnancy only to save the life of the mother. However, by a number of judgments and subsequent precedents, the law can probably now be interpreted to encompass the health of the mother both physical and mental. In other words, termination can be condoned if the pregnancy is likely to interfere with the. mother’s health and leave her a physical or mental wreck.” The public too frequently believed that abortion was a i simple procedure, which was far from the truth, he said. ! Abortion could involve long and short-term hazards, such 'as infection, rupture, uterine performation, blood clots, sterility, and emotional disturbances. There were now very few medical or surgical conditions that warranted abortion in the interest of a woman’s life dr health. But despite the lack of purely medical need for 'abortion, public demand for (it was increasing, he said.