Doctor ‘has not been hounded’ from her job

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 5

Doctor ‘has not been hounded’ from her job

Dr Catherine Stone wants anti-abortion lobbyists to know that they have not hounded her from her job as the only Christchurch doctor performing abortions. Dr Stone, a doctor at the Family Planning Association clinic, began performing abortions at Christchurch Women’s Hospital in May when the previous surgeon retired.

The Canterbury Hospital Board found difficulty replacing the previous surgeon and the Family Planning Association held meetings in an effort to interest general practitioners in sharing the position. After starting training with another doctor, Dr Stone finally found herself the only doctor prepared to continue. She later found that antiabortionists had circularised the other doctors warning them of retaliatory action should they perform abortions at Christchurch Women’s Hospital. At the time she had not been aware of the letters.

By the second week of May, the anti-abortionists were picketing outside the hospital, their placards bearing Dr Stone’s name.

“I was mortified. I absolutely hated it,” she said.

The campaign has continued, with picketing out-

side the hospital, the Family Planning Clinic and, more recently, Dr Stone’s home. Her neighbours have also found notes in their letter boxes, warning them of a neighbour who “indulges in the brutal killing of helpless unborn babies.” It has been no secret that Dr Stone will leave soon to take up another appointment. It does concern her that just before her departure, anti-abortionists have stepped up their campign against her, as if to be able to claim they had hounded her from the job. “You can’t give in to that kind of thing. That is why I am keen for them to know that because I am leaving has nothing to do with this,” Dr Stone said yesterday. “My name has been used as a focus for all the antiabortion attention,” she said.

After working overseas, Dr Stone came to the Family Planning Clinic because she wanted to work in a hassle-free clinic with regular hours.

“I did not know a lot of the things that were happening, but it was a growth experience and I would probably do it again,” she said.

She is adamant that her job as terminating surgeon

is as an employee of the Government and is a legal job. “If I was doing vasectomies I wouldn’t have to hide under the bedcovers’ because of it.” All of the terminations she performs are on pregnancies that have not yet reached 11 weeks.

“They are not horrendous at all. We don’t see pieces of babies; all we see is some blood in a jar. Later abortions would be harder on staff and patients,” Dr Stone said.

She recognises now that she made a good target for anti-abortion groups, having few contacts among doctors here and lacking the confidence that an older, more experienced doctor might have been able to put up against the barrage of protests she has been subjected to.

She says that the last 5.4 months have been a strain for her, not least because of the task of sending women to Auckland and Sydney for abortions because Christchurch could not cope with the demand. The last surgeon performed 24 abortions a week, Dr Stone has been performing 10 part-time.

Dr Stone has high praise for the staff of the Family Planning Clinic who have

supported her through her time as terminating surgeon.

“I probably would have left before if they had not supported me.”

She is not so lavish in her praise of other doctors, who could have supported her either morally or practically.

“I feel let down by other doctors. Instead of seeing a doctor in trouble and helping out, they have seen a doctor in trouble and kept out.”

However, she does acknowledge that there would be financial loss for a general practitioner to work as a part-time terminating surgeon. A solution she suggests would involve specialist gynaecologists adding two terminations to their normal surgery lists, as is done in Dunedin, to help spread the load. Already help is at hand. Four doctors are training for the job at the moment, although none has been formally appointed by the Hospital Board. Their work means that already no-one is being sent out of Christchurch for an abortion.

Dr Stone says that while she can respect the views of those who oppose abortion, there can be no reasoning with those who oppose her.

“In my view the interests of the mother before 12 weeks are far more important than the interests of the foetus.

“I have never met anyone for whom abortion was an easy decision. Unwanted pregnancies can ruin a person’s life. “This has made me sort out how I feel about abortion. It is a woman’s right to choose,” Dr Stone said.

Her sentiments were echoed last evening by one of the four doctors under training to take over terminations in Christchurch. The doctor said that the group of four had been organised to spread the harassment that had been encountered by Dr Stone. They recognised that the job had to be done and were prepared to do it if no-one else came forward.

Ironically, many of the calls to Dr Stone’s home yesterday, after the maildrop to her neighbours, were in support of her actions. They included a call from a minister who said that while he did not agree with abortion neither did he approve of the tactics of the anti-abortionists in singling her out. A spokesman for the picketing group could not be reached for comment last evening.