The Dominion TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1944. AN URGENT NATIONAL PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 225, 20 June 1944, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1944. AN URGENT NATIONAL PROBLEM

While there may be some difference of opinion over some of the means suggested by the Dominion Settlement Association of dealing with the abortion evil in New Zealand, there will be none as to the imperative need for early action. Tn the report of a special investigatory committee set up by the association, the point is made that the prevalence of abortion is the “most serious and urgent issue facing this country”; and from the point of view of a body which has as its object the encouragement of our population this is undoubtedly true. To encourage a larger population by schemes of immigration and settlement, yet at the same time to be ineffectual or faint-hearted in attempting to prevent the tragic wastage of life as a result of the widespread practice of criminal abortion, would be nationally illogical and foolish. Natural increase of population, by the raising of the birth-rate, should come first. Its moral, social and economic advantages must be obvious to all thinking people. The deliberate rejection of life and population by means of abortion is not only wasteful, but also a grave affront to Nature, a physical peril and a moral decadence. It is a spiritual as well as a social duty to combat such a menace. It will be realized, however, by those who carefully study the Settlement Association committee’s report—prepared as a. result of special researches—that a serious existing handicap to a national campaign 1 against abortion is the paucity of detailed information. There is abundant indirect evidence of the widespread existence of the evil ; indeed, estimates based on revealed cases of abortion sepsis, treated in hospitals, suggest some appalling, indeterminate total of upward oti 15,000 cases a year. But the committee appears to. have been unable, so far, to make a more searching analysis of the position; and, what is more, the prospects of its doing so—or of any non-official body coming to real grips with the problem—do not seem encouraging. The need is for State investigation, through hospital boards, the medical profession, social welfare organizations and the police—a thorough and objective- investigation, made preliminary to a Dominion-wide movement to check by legislative, educative, or other means the further development of the abortion canker, and then systematically to eliminate it. The Dominion Settlement Association is performing a valuable public service by setting emphasis on the position, and deploring the lack of national policy in respect to it. But, in the circumstances, there must be doubt as to whether the'association or any other private organization, can go much further. The very nature of the problem is such that special powers will be required before it can be investigated with real thoroughness—let alone before remedial steps can be undertaken. Only the Government can act with the necessary, authority, and the duty of Parliament should be to insist that action by the Government be forthcoming with the least possible delay.