Bill unwelcome, say G.P.s

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 7

Bill unwelcome, say G.P.s

PA ~ Wellington The Health Amendment Bill was an authoritarian intrusion into the doctorpatient relationship, the General Practitioner Society’s chairman, Dr D. Minnitt, said on Sunday. He was commenting on the bill introduced in Parliament last week by the Minister of Health (Mr Gill). It would set up committees to decide on abortions and has the stated aim of preventing an abortion on demand situation aris-

ing while the Royal commission on contraception, sterilisation, and abortion is still deliberating. Dr Minnitt said that the society held a special meeting on Saturday to consider the text of the bill, and had concluded that there are now serious doubts about the Minister’s ability to administer his portfolio. The bill would deprive the patient of her choice of medical adviser in a situation of stress, and family doctors were excluded from helping j with a problem of which they had expert knowledge, Dr Minnitt said. Certification for abortions had been tried overseas and had failed because administrative and bureaucratic procedures were unsuited to good medical management of the problem, and because women were not willing to parade their predicament before committees. “The General Practitioner Society is appalled at the Government’s intransigence in attempting to push through a measure which is contrary to the majority opinion of the medical and paramedical professions, of the public, and of the Minister of Health's own advisers,” said Dr Minnitt.

“Bad laws aggravate the social problems which they attempt to cure, as will inevitably happen in this case. If this bill becomes law there will be an increase in morbidity and mortality among women in New Zealand, without a corresponding reduction in the number of abortions.*’