Opposition grows to Gill amendment

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 3

Opposition grows to Gill amendment

Parliamentary reporter

Wellington Opposition to the Hospitals Amendment Bill, which has been prepared by the Minister of Health (Mr Gill) to change clauses in the Hospitals Act relating to abortion, seems to be growing every day.

It is likely to be brought before the Government caucus today, and a move to have it dropped or deferred is expected. The deputy leader of the Values Party (Mrs M. Crozier) said yesterday:

“Air Commodore Gill has launched an attack on the professional judgment of general practitioners and the right of patients to seek advice from the hospital or medical practitioner of their choice. “He has declared his intention to introduce legisla-

tion shortly which will direct all applications for the termination of pregnancy to public hospitals. Yet 1000 general practitioners are referring applications to the Auckland Medical Aid Centre, which has what are widely recognised as the only facilities for counselling and the safest medical procedures available.

“He is planning to interfere in the decision which

doctor must make in the best interests of his patient by setting up a new stage: the approval of a public hospital. In doing so, he shows a fundamental ignorance of the medical dangers he will be exposing women to by enforcing further delays. "Auckland’s National Women’s Hospital alreadv has r waiting list of a month where delays mean complications three times as many after the tenth week of pregnancy. Futhermore, such legislation will impose a

severe strain in cost and time on the staff of hospitals which are not equipped to cope.

“Mr Gill is showing his personal contempt for the as vet unfinished work of the Royal Commission on sterilisation, abortion, and contraception which was set up, at a cost of about $1.25M, to hear all opinions and make recommendations in these sensitive areas.

“Abortion remains a moral issue on which opinion is strongly divided, within the medical and legal professions, and amongst churches and women themselves. But public feeling clearly favours the availability of abortion (65 per cent in the latest opinion poll). “What makes Mr Gill think that he has a mandate to impose the dictates of his conscience on the whole community or to believe that he has the support of the majority to do so?” asked Mrs Crozier.