Contraception and abortion

Press, 1 August 1977, Page 16

Contraception and abortion

Sir, — I would refer Pat Wilkinson (“The Press,” July 26) to the British Lane Report and both her and Dr Dobson (“The Press,” July 27) to “Pregnancy, the Psychological Experience," by Dr and Mrs A. Colman, and to “Psychoanalytical Study of the Child,” by Grete Bibring, Vol. 14, pages 113-121. The Lane Report states: “The clearer the psychiatric indications are for abortion, the more probable it is that psychiatric disturbances will also occur after abortion.” Abortion is not therapeutic. The Colmans’ book shows that emotional lability is a fact of early pregnancy; progesterone, released at this time, intensifies the mother’s changing moods. Bibring’s study considers pregnancy to be a crisis affecting all expectant mothers and leading to an acute disequilibrium which, “under favourable conditions,” will result in greater maturity. We, the. caring society, should provide these conditions by helping the mothers to cope during their pregnancies and afterwards. —Yours, etc., ERICA JORDAN. July 27, 1977.

Sir, —Doctor Dobson has used the sledge hammer of his psychiatric qualifications to drive home attack of evidence presented by S.P.U.C. to the Royal Commission. He claims that there is no scientific evidence for “emotional instability and depression” in the early months of pregnancy, whether planned or not. I have had several children, and although I am reliably informed that there is little reference to “constipation” in scientific papers, it is nevertheless a well known fact that this also is common in pregnancy.— Yours, etc.,

MARGARET KIRK July 27, 1977.