Abortion ‘abhorrent’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33869, 14 June 1975, Page 6

Abortion ‘abhorrent’

(From LEONE STEWART) WELLINGTON. Abortion is abhorent to the American anthropologist and feminist, Dr Margaret Mead. But she believes it should be regarded simply as a medical, not a social, concern. “In Protestant countries,” she said in Wellington yesterday, “It’s a mistake to talk of legalising anything. “Protestants have for so long been using the law to make people good that if anything is legalised the people think it must be good,” she said. Dr Mead thinks abortion is "lamentable.” However, it is, she says, the bad social conditions that lead to a demand for abortion that should be condemned and cured. “Today,” she said, “we

don’t protect our girls. We don’t give girls and . women free access to contraception. We don’t give them adequate information on birth control. This is what is wrong today.” Dr Mead says discussion should be about repealing laws against abortion. Then abortion should, she says, be made a medical matter of free choice. I'he skill of the practice of abortion is what, in her opinion, must be regulated. She would like to see health services restructured so that all services related to the well-being of children are treated in combined medical centres. In this she would include pre-marital concerns, contraception, fertility, family planning, sterility, and abortion.