EVILS OF ABORTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 April 1937, Page 9

EVILS OF ABORTION

DISCUSSED BY WOMEN’S INSTITUTE \TARANAKI RESOLUTIONS [United Press Association] NEW PLYMOUTH, 23rd April. A definite stand on the question of abortion was taken by 120 delegates from the Taranaki Women’s Institutes here this morning, following an address by Dr Doris Gordon, author of a book on the subject of the evils of abortion in New Zealand. 1. The report of the Committee of Inquiry into abortion, in conjunction with evidence revealed in the book “Gentlemen of the Jury,’’ discloses a state of affairs of the utmost seriousness and importance requiring the urgent consideration of the Government and all associations and persons having the interests of the State at heart. 2. It appears that the administration of the law relative to criminal abortion is not effective, and that the legal position in regard to sterilisation requires definition. 3. This meeting heartily endorses the committee’s recommendations that pain-relieving measures in childbirth be more widely used, that the problem of domestic help for mothers be remedied, that new laws be framed governing the sale and advertisement of contraceptives, abortifacients, and so-called “regulators.” 4. This meeting in particular urges the Government at once to appoint a Royal Commission, under the chairmanship of a Judge of the Supreme Court, with the object of (a) considering the existing machinery of the law relating to criminal abortion and recommending amendments and extensions to make it more effective; (b) defining the New Zealand law in reference to sterilisation, and rcommending legislation to provide for modern conditions; (c) framing laws governing the sale and advertisement of contraceptives, abortifacients. and regulators, with the necessary machinery for ensuring that these laws be rigidly enforced.