Pregnancy definitions

Press, 26 May 1977, Page 16

Pregnancy definitions

The Family Planning Association believes there is confusion about the definition of pregnancy in the report of the Royal Commission on contraception, sterilisation and abortion. Dr Helen McGill, the South Island deputy president of the association says in a statement: “At its recent conference the Family Planning Association stated: ‘The meeting unanimously agreed that life begins at fertilisation: and therefore to distinguish between methods of fertility control which intervene between fertilisation and implantation, and those which intervene after implantation, is arbitrary and unscientific.’ “The Royal Commission, defines pregnancy as beginning at implantation, but sometimes uses the word ‘contraception’ to mean fertilisation and sometimes to mean implantation. This is where we feel there is confusion in their thinking. Foliowring from this any contraceptive measure which pre*

vents the fusion of egg and sperm (in other words, •natural,’ barrier and hormonal methods of contraception), is the only true, ‘con-tra’-ceptive. Any means of preventing the implantation of a fertilised ovum should therefore be defined as an early abortifacient. “Therefore, the morningafter pill, the post coital use of the I.U.D. (in fact, any use of the 1.U.D.), menstrual regulation (suction curettage of the uterus in suspected pregnancy), and recognised abortion techniques aie only differing degrees of ways of interrupting a pregnancy. “The Royal Commission, in stating that the use of the morning-after pill and post coital use of the I.U.D. are ‘legal,’ and in stating that menstrual regulation and prostaglandins in suspected pregnancy are ‘illegal,’ and that abortion techniques can be ‘legally’ used after approval by a panel of doctors, is drawing arbitrary dividing lines across a continuing process that starts with fertilisa-

tion and ends with the birth of a baby. “At the association’s conference it was also stated that; ‘A major change in policy has taken place within the Family Planning Association since the last conference and this is highlighted by the passing of the following remit by an overwhelming majority: A large majority of the meeting believed that the interests of the mother during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy outweigh those of the foetus, and therefore support the principle that termination of pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy should not be a legal offence.’ “Thus, these decisions should not be in the hands of Government and the law, but placed where they properly belong—as a decision between the woman and her doctor in consultation with the father of the baby if this is applicable,” said Dr McGill.