EVIL OF ABORTION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 85, 27 April 1937, Page 12

EVIL OF ABORTION

■ ■ 9 mMB • ■■ A Notable New Plymouth Pttblication CALL T0 PUBLIC OPINION Arrssting disclosures ?ega?difig the soeial and national evil of illegal abortion are contained in a teeent publication, "Gentlemen of the Jury, ' ' the joiht authors of which are Dr. Doris 0. Gordon and Dr. Francis O. Bennett. It is pubiished By Thomas Avery and Sons, Ltd., New Plymouth, and so that it will receive the Wide cifculatioa it deserves it is being issued at iow cost, in paper boards at 2/6 and in cloth boards at S/6. In inaking recolnmendations the fecent committee of inquiry emphasised the vital need for a change in ■public opinion before the social and national toll of illegal abortion eould be feduced. "Gentlemefi of the Jury, ' ' must have an incalculable infliience On public opinion and no publication could have been more timely and more neCessary than this. The 60ok is fOrceful and challenging in its style and its frankness will arouse New .Zealanders out of the complacency that so often cloaks social evils. Eeaders may be shocked at the di&elosures of the book, but at the same time they will admire the courage of the authors, their in presenting a difficult, often unSavoury, case, and their obvious and sincere desire to put an end to a social tendency of the times that is imperiliing the future of the Dominion. An tfnregistered Company, The authors describe abortion as an unregistered company which trades in a busihess-like method except register .the company, issue certiiicates of efficiency and advertise in neOn-light letters. As Nature is desperately keen to recreate the Species aUd as modern civilisatidn inakes children an iiicreasingly diffiCult problem this coterie of Abortionists aiid Co. have tapped a gold-mine of wealth unparalleled almost in mddern industry. ' ' The effeCt df both illegal abortion and the use of conti-aceptives 6ii the Domiaion's bifth-rate is dealt With ciearly and frankly. It is pointed oilt that the low birth-rate of 1936 can now be interpreted in these terois: Every maie over the age of 21 in the Dominion now has to his credit only Sevefi-tenths of a Child. In a natural community the majority of men over 21 wotlld be fathers of several children. What has modern civilisation, with its competition, its birth-control propaganda, and its unlimited company of abortionists, done to us that every adult male now has less than one child apieee to his ■posteritV record?

Last year just under 24,000 children were permitted to be born in the Dominion and 6,000, or more, were wilfully aborted. In other words approximately one-fifth of last year's production of young New Zealanders were lost before they were born. In their treatment of the motives for the inerease in abortions the authors show deep sympathy and a lceen psycholdgical insight. They recognise how woman's newly-Won independence and freedom from the stifling repressions of her mother and grandmother have reaeted rather too strongly especialiy since the Great War upset moral values and the traditional duty of women to accept maternal responsibilities. From 1925 onwards women came to accept birth control as an essential part of civilisation "and began to order an abortion as calmly as they Would order a tube of tdothpaste. ' ' The authors make it clear that the problem must be taekled from the human poittt of view. The biological faet that human reproduction depends on the female cannot be altered, "We applaud women 's emancipatibn, but only to the degree that wOman can he'ver outWit her destiny. Motherhood is the one true sense in which she is both servant anfi the warden of huinfinity. ' ' Dairy Panr Oonditions. A chapter of the book deals eympa* thetically with the problem of the overworked and aiiing Woman on & dairy farm who feels that she cannot face her sixth, seven or eighth pregUancy, and pdthetic cases are cited that are typical of the many met with by doctors in Taranaki. As the authdrs point out legislatio.n gives ua a 40-hour week for sturdy males, but our legislators will have to think long and hard before they can remedy the 90-hour week worked by mauy mothers on dairy farms. The suggestion is offered that the health caanp scheme might he . enlarged so that every province could have its camps which could also serve as well'SUpervlsed receivjng homes for children whose mothers are unablo to secure, or to afi-ord, suitable assistance during their period of confinement and rest. It would also be in the State's intferests to see that in the allotment of the new dwellings under the housing scheme preference be given to the deserving patents of large families. The authors also strongly advise the sterilisation of mothers of large families whose health would be seriously impaired by further pregnancies, ' Three-Fold Suggestions. The suggestions of the authors are three-fold: — (1) JPlace all the facts in front of all the people. (2) Make motherhood more attraetive. (3) TightOn up the legal fabric. Eecommendations along these lines are made in detail. Every yfear now, from 30 to 40 New Zealand Women are known to die because of illegal abortion; and vastly greater is the tl-ain of ill-health and misery which follows. But furthermore, the State, which has been denied the children which it might have expeeted, is now prepared to pay the women responsible for such denial invalid pensions because of their resulting disablement. In the words of the authors "New Zealand needs education, not expedients; commuiial resolve to think ciearly and aet feaflessly in facing this evil; and above all it needs a capacity for self-discipline, Without Which no demoeraey can hOpfe to feurvim"