SERIOUS HEALTH ASPECT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19098, 20 August 1936, Page 15

SERIOUS HEALTH ASPECT

INQUIRY TO BE MADE COMMITTEE OF, DOCTORS MINISTER’S EXPLANATION (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Minister of Health, tho Hon. P. Fraser, announced to-day that the Government had appointed a committee to inquire into the incidence ol septic abortion among women in New Zealand. The members of tho committee arc Dr. G. B. McMillan, M.P., chairman; Dr. T. P. GorkiH, Wellington, president of the New Zealand Obstetrical Society; Dr. Sylvia Chapman, medical superintendent of St. Helen’s Hospital, Wellington; Mrs. .Tanot. Fraser, Wellington; and Di. T. L. Paget, inspector of private hospitals, Department of Health, Wellington. , , The committee has been asked to report on the incidence of septic abortion among women iti New Zealand, and to indicate how Now Zealand’s figures in this respect compare with those of other countries; to inquire and report regarding the underlying causes of septic abortion in the Dominion, including medical, social, economic. and any other factors involved; to recommend what steps should be taken to reduce and, if possible, eliminate the occurrence of septic abortion; and generally to report on any other related matters affecting the subject. The committee will, if necessary, visit centres outside of Wellington for the purpose of gathering evidence. The Minister 'said that during recent years the Health Department’s work had brought to light the fact that there was .an increasing number of deaths from septic abortion taking place in this country. Such cases included both married and single women, hut; tlie former predominated. Preliminary inquiry had already shown that during the five-year period, 1931 to 1935, 112 married women and 34 single women died from this cause, married women leaving behind them no fewer than 338 children, of whom 291 were under the age of 1(5.

The Minister added that it was recognised that the problem of reducing the occurrence of septic abortion was not merely a medical matter, but that other factors of social and economic character entered into the question.