Abortions being marketed

Press, 14 August 1976, Page 2

Abortions being marketed

PA Wellington Australian doctors performing abortions may be looking to New- Zealand again for custom in view of the proposed restriction on abortions here, according to several Wellington doctors. Their comment is a result of some doctors getting a card from a Sydney doctor, “specialising in suction termination of pregnancy.” They say this latest card may have resulted from the intention of the Minister of Healt’-., (Mr Gill) to restrici abortions by curtailing the activities at the Auckland Medical Aid Centre. A spokesman for the New Zealand Medical Association said that the

practice of doctors advertising their services outside their own countries was a “dubious area of medical ethics.” “We have no jurisdiction over doctors in other countries, but if a complaint W;.s received from a New Zealand doctor who had seen one of these cards, the matter could be referred to the association’s ethical committee,” he said. The ethical committee could then refer the matter to the Australian Medical Association. Commenting on Mr Gill’s move to restrict abortions, the chairman of the General Practitioners Society, (Dr David Minnitt) said it v uld inevitably bring back the Tasman abortion trade.