CRIMINAL ABORTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 274, 18 November 1937, Page 8

CRIMINAL ABORTION

LOW STANDARD OF MORALS VIEWS OF MINISTERS REV. C. EATON’S COMMENTS [ Per Press Association. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 17. Stressing the urgent need of an examination of the moral standards of the community, the Rev. Clarence Eaton, who presided at the opening of the annual Synod of the North Canterbury district of the Methodist Church to-day, said that if it were true that the test of a civilisation was the character and status of its women, the McMillan report on abortion gave good reason for concern on the part of those whose business it was to care for the moral health of the people. Referring to the Minister of Health’s statement that steps were being taken to prevent the indiscriminate sale of abortifacient drugs and appliances, Mr. Eaton said that there was no mention of drastic action to prevent the hawking and indiscriminate sale of contraceptives by unscrupulous chemists, small traders, and others. “Our measures must begin with the man, not the woman. Medical men, importuned by desperate women to commit this crime, testify that there is usually a male promoter in the background. The part drink plays in this sorry business has been recently stressed by one of our Supreme Court Judges. It is the contents of a man’s hip flask that makes slippery for heedless womanhood the downward path. The breakdown is in masculine chivalry and self control. Indulgence in alcoholic liquor is said to be a conu mon feature of week-end sport.” Mr. .Eaton concluded: “Respecl for law and order is whittled away when sly-grog selling is winked at in the clubhouse and pavilion. The leaders of sport may find the club funds augmented at too great a cost to young manhood.”