FIFTY THOUSAND ABORTIONS
SIR,—The prospect of bearing a probable or even possibly deformed child after taking certain drugs or an attack of German measles during the early weeks is obviously so terrifying to the parents that it is not surprising that they will beseech the doctor to terminate the pregnancy. But however much he sympathises with the distress of the parents he is restrained by two difficulties.
The first is that at present it is illegal to induce abortion for eugenic reasons, that is, to prevent the birth of a child lest it be deformed or a victim of a serious hereditary disease. The second is that by no means all babies for whom deformity is feared arc born abnormal. For example, thalido- mide only- exerts its sinister influence when taken during the earliest weeks and in sufficient dose. The diagnosis of German measles in adults is so often doubtful that routine abortion for this reason could not be considered for these women. Never- theless there may be a justification for the opera- tion by the violently anxious state of the mother which drives her to despair. Here most psychiatrists would confirm the necessity for ending the preg- nancy.
We, as doctors, are confronted by two other groups of acutely distressed women. One is the married woman who is physically and mentally exhausted by multiple childbearing, usually in rapid succession. She dreads the further baby with a dull and hopeless fear. For the majority of these patients abortion is necessary, even essential.
The other group is the unmarried girl or young woman tortured by the prospect of an illegitimate baby and all that this means for her social and economic future. However much we may sympathise and wish to help the girl pleading in front of us the operation cannot be done legally unless there is a valid medical indication.
The 50,000 abortions mentioned by Miss Tindall mean that a large number of these patients are re- lieved by criminal abortionists. Though the large majority of their, operations are not followed by dangerous complications yet they are by no means negligible as is shown by recently published figures from a Swedish hospital. Further, there is a risk to life. In 1959 forty-seven women in this country died after induced abortion, which amounted to 16 per cent. of all maternal deaths in pregnancy and labour. Even if the law were radically modified a little-recognised practical problem would be the provision of hospital beds to accommodate the re- sulting large number of women suffering from hzemorrhage and/or infection after the operation.
My own view is that the law should not be
modified to render abortion easier (except for proved rape of a child under the age of consent) because in the relevant sections of the Act of 1861 penalties are laid-- down for those who procure abortion unlawfully. For those unfortunate married women for whom doctors, including psychiatrists, can find no physical or mental indications for termination the operation is not nor ever will be permissible, for if it were the door would be open for abortion on demand, to which Parliament will never agree.
A move in the solution of this social problem would be to abolish the still remaining stigma attacking the unmarried mother and her child and a wide extension of the services available for their help after the child is born.
28 Weymouth Street, W1 ALECK BOURNE
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