Abortion statistics ‘not true picture’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32874, 24 March 1972, Page 10

Abortion statistics ‘not true picture’

United Nations statistics, which showed that abortion was five times safer for women than childbirth, were based mainly on reports from countries where abortion was regarded as a kind of delayed contraception to be had on demand, said a Christchurch gynaecologist, Mr K. D. Drayton, yesterday.

They did not give a true picture of the abortion risk for women up to six months pregnant, he said. Mr Drayton was replying to Dr J. R. E. Dobson’s comments in “The Press” yesterday. on the variance between mortality statistics in the United Nations report on abortion, and those of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. “These United Nations figures refer to the large numbers of abortions carried out in Japan, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Hungary where abortion is available on demand as a form of contraception. “As abortions are carried out within a few weeks, or even days of conception, the resulting mortality rate is low. But in countries where thought and consideration is given to every case to be terminated, regardless of the stage of pregnancy, the mortality is much higher.”

An example of this was Britain. Mr Drayton said.

“The mortality rate for abortions there, in the first three months of pregnancy, in 1970, was 22 per 100,000, but this rose to 84 per 100,000 when abortions for the second three months were carried out “Over-all, the mortality for abortions in the whole period was about double the maternal mortality for confinement,” Mr Drayton said. “These figures justify the

attitude of the society towards abortions. NX REACTION

“I doubt whether the average New Zealander Would be prepared to accept the casual attitude held in countries like Hungary, that abortions be available on demand in the first few weeks, but not later without good reason. “Dr Dobson is a psychiatrist, and as such, supports a very different point of view from those who have to face the final decision to terminate a pregnancy,” Mr Drayton said.