BISHOP’S COMMITTEE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 29 March 1938, Page 8

BISHOP’S COMMITTEE

“NO DESIRE MERELY TO SCOLD" j "The emergence of the question of abortion into public view and open debate has shocked the people of New Zealand as few other moral and social | questions have done for some years.” I I says the statement on criminal abortion issued by a committee headed by the Bishop of Wellington. "Little consolation is found in the knowledge that this is not the only country affected by a malady that is an indicative of moral slackness as it is threatening to national health and well-being. Yet j in the face of such evidence as the country has seen, it is of little avail j to wring our hands helplessly and do nothing to meet a menace so grave. "This statement has been prepared; after a study of the matter in the light ; of the evidence of the McMillan re- ‘ port, as well as that of social workers of varied experience and different j points of view. There is no desire merely to scold or engage in useless brow-beating, but rather to affirm that there remains such things as "common l decencies of life,’ and to suggest how they may best be preserved. "At the outset it is necessary to get I clown to basic questions. If abortion | were just a problem of the unmarried woman, as a perusal of CouiT cases 1 might erroneously suggest, the solu- 1 lion might be much simpler than it is. But since the McMillan report shows 'that the great majority of abortions are practised on married women, it | becomes more necessary to ask, "What ! is behind all this? Of what is it the symptom.” The answer may be found lo have a bearing not only on abortion j but also on the whole range of sex : I morality. "The answer that seems most cogent is perhaps that of Professor A. M. Carr-Saunders, of the University of Liverpool, in his Gallon lecture of ! 1935. We have passed rapidly from an age when children were the inevitable accompaniment of married life into an age of voluntary parenthood. Fifty years and more ago there .'was, generally speaking, no attitude to 1 size of family; that settled itself. But : now the knowledge. or even half- ' knowledge of the mechanics of contraceptives and abortifications is so widespread that the sexual act, by many, is no longer regarded as having a normal and natural issue in parenthood ! What has hitherto been natural and ,; normal in human experience is now to be optional and voluntary. With ' the provision of so many new devices jit is now assumed to be possible for I married people to determine whether i their union shall be childless or their . family limited. Such parenthood as j they decide will be self-determined i and self-clelimited. "GREATEST INNOVATION” "It may be questioned whether among all the new powers science has ’ given to humanity, to be used for life ’ j or death, there is any other so far- ’ ; reaching as this. Professor Carr--1 Saunders's own words are: ‘Voluntary • parenthood is the greatest innovation* . that the human race has ever made,’ and ‘Let it be said clearly that the r escape from the unlimited family L . makes a very great step forward in . human history. The problem is to ad- . just outlook to the responsibility in- ; volved by the transition to the voluntary family system.’ L “In the hands of men and women of 3 marriageable age, as never before, are 1 the issue of life and death. How will 5 they use this power? To lift the race | or to destroy it? That is the question 2 1 underlying all that follows here. * | "Unfortunately, with the use of this I : new power there has begun a disinI I tegration of the generally accepted s ( standards of behaviour. A purely inJ tellectual approach to the problems inj j volved in this disintegration is un- | realistic and inadequate. Spiritual and | emotional factors are of the first im--5! portance. and notice must be taken of } | what is generally or widely recognised , to be right or wrong. “An appeal must be made to the . intuition and conscience of the community to realise in which direction

change is required in its interests.' With this must be coupled an appeal lo the courage of the community to make the required change.” The statement examines the harmful elTect of abortion and the evils it is considered to involve. It docs not condemn the regulation of families by birth control, but says: "While abor-1 tion is to 'be condemned, the right is to be recognised of parents to space their families by contraception-control. It is obvious that parents must have this right to regulate their families, whatever may be said of the means ! by which it is to be accomplished. "There are some who believe that it should only be done by abstinence from intercourse; and if marriage were only for the procreation of children, 1 this would be the only logical attitude ,to take up. in the words of the Revised Prayer Book of the Anglican Church, marriage was also ordained ’in order that the natural instincts and affections implanted by God should be hallowed and directed aright, that those who are called of 1 God to this holy estate should continue therein in pureness of living ’ We therefore are not prepared to condemn the disciplined use of contraceptives