"

This is the view of Miss Stella Browne in her essay on "The Right to
Abortion"[2] and of others who hold similar opinions.

[2] "Abortion Spontaneous and Induced." Taussig.

Is any comment necessary?

The representative of one of the largest women's organizations in New
Zealand who gave evidence before the Committee advocated the
introduction of legislation permitting abortion under certain
circumstances after a woman had had two children, subsequently
qualifying the suggestion by the words "if contraceptives fail."

In the case of such ill-considered opinions, the Committee believes
that it would be impossible to limit the practice if the law were in
any way relaxed.

Of course there are others who confine their advocacy of legalized
abortion to cases in which there are elements of real tragedy and which
appeal to public sympathy, but, granting that there are many cases in
which social and economic conditions create situations of great
hardship, nevertheless the Committee is fairly convinced that abortion
is not justifiable; the remedies lie in the removal of the causes and
the alleviation of these difficult situations by social legislation and
other measures, and in the education of the public conscience.

The Committee is also opposed to the legalization of abortion for
social reasons on account of the very considerable risks to health
which are associated with the practice.

Medical witnesses were agreed that, while the immediate risk to life in
surgically performed termination of pregnancy was slight, there were
very definite possibilities of more remote disabilities, and that such
sequelae occurred in a considerable proportion of cases.

In the case of a genuine therapeutic abortion these risks are
outweighed by the dangers of the condition calling for the termination
of pregnancy, but were the operation to be performed freely for social
reasons the effect in the community might be very serious.

World-wide interest has been aroused in the matter through the
experience on Soviet Russia, where, for a number of years, abortion for
social and economic reasons was legalized and extensively practised.

The operations were performed in special hospitals and by skilled
operators.

At first it was claimed that when the operation was done openly and
carefully the risk to life was exceedingly small. It was stated, for
instance, that in 1926 artificial abortion was carried out on 29,306
women in Mosco