ABORTION EVIL

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 June 1944, Page 2

ABORTION EVIL

‘ALARMING PREVALENCE

WELLINGTON, June 16. “The most serious and urgent issue facing this country is the alarming prevalence of abortion,’’ states the Natural Increase Committee of the Dominion Settlement Association in an. interim report adopted by the executive of the Association last night. The committee states that it presents its report as a matter of urgency, its researches having disclosed a position so serious and vital that it deems' it imperative to lay bare tire facts so that immediate and drastic steps can be taken to check the evil. Its recommendations are:— “That whereas the crime of abortion is ranked in the criminal code in the same class as murder, the I'uli penalty for which is hard labour for life with relative penalties lor ah those who arc guilty of aiding and abetting, the Government be urged to institute a vigorous campaign to bring to trial all persons guilty of such crimes, convictions to be enforced with the uttermost rigour of the law.

“To amend the law so that only parents of three or more children shall be eligible to sit on a jury trying abortion eases. “To instruct the Health Department io conduct, a frank advertising programme setting forth the terrible and inescapable consequences of abortion in deaths and upon the health of those who undergo it, and the high percentage of sterility it causes. “That an urgent call be made to all churches and spiritual and social leaders to stress in no uncertain terms the magnitude of such crimes from the spiritual and Christian standpoint.” The committee added that figures recently published estiinated the number of cases of abortion at from 15.000 to 20,000 a year. The total live births for 1943 was 30,311. It appeared, therefore, that for each two children allowed to live at least one was murdered before birth. No more damning indictment could be cited, especially in a country the chief security of which lay largely in increasing the population.