S.P.U.C. claims doctors break abortion laws

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 7

S.P.U.C. claims doctors break abortion laws

IPA Wellington I Wellington Hospital Board (and local abortion certifying (Consultants are breaking’ the ■abortion laws, according to ; Mrs Marilyn Pryor, national (president of the Society for (the Protection of the Unborn Child. ■ She said that she had given (the Abortion Supervisory (Committee evidence of (alleged breaches. Under the Crimes Act, (said Mrs Pryor, abortions (were not permitted unless (there was serious danger to a pregnant woman’s health. I She alleged that some certifying consultants in Wel(lington were approving abortions for almost every woman coming to them. Last year, 604 abortions Were performed in Wellington Hospital Board institutions. “In Wellington 1 don’t know how they can justify more than 20 a year under the grounds laid down in the Crimes Act,” Mrs Pryor said. All the law had achieved was to make doctors "bigger liars.” She said that in 1969 the Wellington and Hutt hospitals performed only 20 abortions. “The medical superintendent of the Wellington Hospital Board has a responsibility to tell the public if it

(is a fact that Wellington [women are now 30 times [more subject to mental and (physical illness as a result (of pregnancy than they were in 1969.” Mrs Pryor said. i “If they are not, the pubdie are entitled to know why taxes are being used for unlawful purposes,” she said. Mrs Augusta Wallace. S.M.. chairman of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, said the committee had not yet had a chance to consider Mrs Pryor's submission. But she said that if S.P.U.C. had evidence that the law was being broken, it was its duty to report it to the police. ‘‘Abortion is unlawful unless certain requirements are met, and if there is any evidence of a breach of the' law it is the duty of whomsoever has the evidence to report it,” Mrs Wallace said. The committee would not report to the police evidence received from S.P.U.C. or any other organisation as it was likely to be third or fourth hand, and action could not be taken on evidence of that sort. Mrs Pryor said in reply: “The statistics tell us that we have abortion on request, but before anything can be reported to the police we have to have a specific case, and that is unlikely.”