A GREAT SOCIAL EVIL.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 75, 15 April 1937, Page 4

A GREAT SOCIAL EVIL.

In August of last year dur Government set up a coiiimittee with the ohject of makiilg an enquiry iiito the incidence of septib abortion in New Zealand and the causes of its oecurrence, and to adviso ais to the best meaiis of combating and pteventing it. The eommittee of five consisted, with oiie exefeptibn, a woman social Worker, of members of the niedical prdfesSibn, one of them also d Woman. Judging hy their report, tlie eommittee Would appear to have conducted their ihVestigations in a very thorough manner. The result is that they present facts and figures which cannot but come as sbmething bf a shoek even to a community in some measure pfepared for them by the revelations of recent local court jjroceedings. The netiessaJrily much abbreviated summary we Werfe able to publish yesterday can give only a superficial idea of thfe deep impression that is created by the full text of the fepdrt, but even that should be sufficent to stimulate sefious thought on the part of those wbo have the welfare of thb coiintry and its people at heart. Its disclosures naturally prompt eonsideration under two aspects, the economie and patriotic dn the one hand and the moral and 'ethical on the other. Just now we are. hearirig a good deal with rega^rd to the dwindiing rate bf naturai iricrease in our population aiid the economic dangers this inVoives. It is not, of course, to be said that the eommittee 's disblosures fully account for this, but they certaanly go a fairly ldhg wa.y towards iti Siich a cdheliisitin cannot but be rCached whCii we read that, "abortion is exceedingly commbii in New Zealand" and thatj from the evidence adduced, "at least ofae pregnancy in every five ends in ajbortion." In other words some 6,000 abdrtions dccur iri the Dominidn every year, and of these it is said th&t two-thirds are crimirially indiiced either thfdugh the a^ehcy of criminal abortiouists or by self-applied means to a like end. These two recoUrses are hranded as equally dangetous, and it is averred that death froin septic abortion oeeufs aimost entirely in sueh oases, accouintiilg in soiiie Urban distriets fdr nearly half of the tota'I maternal inbftality. How far the birth-rate is affedted by resort to abortion, either seif-induced or the result of criminal dutside ageiicies, is shoivn hy tiie conclusiOh reached that 13 pei" centi of pregnancies are ended in this way. The eommittee were perhaps going beyond the strict scojpe of their order of reference in diseussing the gfdatly inbreased use of cohtraceptives, which, however, is iii essence only another pbase of abortion. In any event, the eommittee have colleeted and presented quite sufficient data to afford some understanding ad to ineans enipld.yed and practicds followed which accdunt very materially for the continuous fall ih the birth-rate In a country which cUlls alOUd for an increasedt populatibii. •As to the reasons for the adoption of these recourses the cbnimittee advance -- sever al suggestiOns. Of these is placed first economic and domestic hardship. To this, of course, some weight must be given, but its cogency finds little support in the fact that the limitation of families, by one means or another, is most marked airioiig the Weli-to-do. Although, of course, substantially Cvident eveii aniong the great body of wage-earnfers, it is ainong them that wd still have td Idok maihLy for the "proletariat" in tlie orginal sense of the word, the "breeders" of meii and women. That even among them the birth-rate has falleii so Very considefably inay possibly be attributed to the spread of education and the greatly improVCd social conditioixs under which they live. It is, in fact, difficult to escape the cojielUsidn that the easier and more pleasurable life is iriade for the pare&ts, The leSs the incliiiation tb burden themselves with the producing and rearing of children. This, too, has tb be said deSpite the fact that the State has iii vCi*y great measure relieved them of their former heavy respohsibilities for education aud main'teuaiice o£ health. For those who can look back bver the early days of colonisation the plea of hardship can be cdiiVinciiig in only a very small degree. Whatever drawbacks • preseixt-day parents may have td pUt up with in the reai-iilg of families, they are very small as Compared with the per* sonai sacrifices which earlier 'settlers had tb impbse upon themselves. We are, in truth, liVing in a pleasure-lbving age of great self-indulgence, and the diviiie iujunctibn to OUr first pareiits to "be f ruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth' ' has lost all significance.