ABORTION INQUIRIES Aust. doctor’s home raided, says clinic

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33759, 4 February 1975, Page 18

ABORTION INQUIRIES Aust. doctor’s home raided, says clinic

(A tit Zealand Press Association! AUCKLAND. February 3.

Three policemen early this morning raided the home of a Sydney doctor who performed abortions at the Remuera abortion clinic, according to an Auckland spokesman for the clinic.

Mis Anna Watson, a member of the Auckland Medical Aid Trust Board, said the police party, led by an Auckland detective, arrived at the doctor's home at 7 a.m. with photostats of patients’ files seized from the clinic last year.

The detective had two S'dney policemen with him, said Mrs Watson. “In fact, the detective could have saved himself the trouble of going all the way to Australia, because the doc. tor concerned was working at the Auckland clinic all last month, and returned to Sydney only on Sunday afternoon." she said. “He was at the clinic on Friday when the police called to return the last 14 of the files they seized—but they

did not ask if he was there, and we did not see any reason to tell them.” Mrs Watson said members of the trust board were particularly concerned that the police were continuing their inquiries using photostats of the clinic’s files after the Court of Appeal had ordered that all files seized from the clinic should be returned. The three Judges of the Court of Apnea] last month ruled that the search warrant used by the police to raid

the abortion clinic was issued; [ improperly. ‘Moral victory’ “Winning the appeal may; have been a moral victory 1 for the trust, but it seems to have made no practical differ.[ ence at all in view of the fact that the police have been allowed to use photo-copies; of the flies they illegally; seized,” Mrs Watson said. “To me, this does not seem like justice.” The police had already interviewed some girls who had had abortions at the clinic, doctors who had re-; ferred them to the centre,! the clinic’s medical consultants, and its counsellors, said Mrs Watson. The head of the Auckland police district (Assistant Commissioner G. Tait) said tonight that he could not comment on the report, and he declined to identify the detective involved.