Abortion boom
Sir: I am sorry to have offended Dr John Rowan Wilson (Letters, 14 March) by my 'gross lapse of taste' in pointing out (Letters, 7 March) that no one who is sympathetic to abortion law reform can seriously maintain we have abortion-on-demand when twenty women a year are still dying as a result of criminal abortion. The experience of the Preg- nancy Advisory Service during the past year shows conclusively that in some parts of the country women who have clear grounds for abortion under the Act are unable to obtain it locally, often due to the illiberal attitudes of a minority of hostile doctors. It is nice to know, however, that despite all evidence to the con- trary in his deplorable article, Dr Rowan Wilson is still on the side of the angels.
An interesting sidelight on London as the supposed 'abortion capital of Europe' was pro- vided by the Secretary of State for Social Ser- vices in a written reply on 3 March : `Up to the end of September 1968, eighteen women not normally resident in this country were treated under the Act in NHS hospitals in England and Wales, presumably as private patients, fourteen of them in the London area.'
Madeleine Simms Press Officer, Abortion Law Reform Associa- tion, 17 Dunstan Road, London NW11
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