Part 2 (1/2)

In so far as the deaths from septic abortion can be taken as a comparative indication of the occurrence of abortion generally--and the Committee believes this is a fair index--there seems little doubt that there has been a marked increase.

A reference to the graph already given will indicate this rise.

There is reason to hope that the fall in 1935 means an improvement in the general situation.

Professor Dawson, giving evidence regarding admissions to the Dunedin Hospital, showed that in the five-year period 1931-35 there was an increase of 23.7 per cent. in the cases of abortion as compared with the previous five-year period.

The evidence of other medical witnesses was practically unanimous on this point.

HOW DOES NEW ZEALAND COMPARE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES IN THIS MATTER?

According to the report of the British Medical a.s.sociation Committee on the Medical Aspects of Abortion (1936), the position in Great Britain would appear to be very similar to that existing in New Zealand.

In that report it is stated that the incidence of abortion is generally reckoned at from 16 per cent. to 20 per cent. of all pregnancies.

The spontaneous-abortion rate is suggested as probably about 5 per cent. of all pregnancies.

The evidence set before that Committee suggested that there has been an increase in criminal abortion in the last decade.

In England and Wales 134 per cent. of the total maternal deaths were due to abortion.

That Committee concludes that ”illegal instrumentation contributes to an overwhelming degree to the mortality from abortion.”

One of the most interesting investigations into this aspect of the subject is reported by Parish[1] in a study of 1,000 cases of abortion treated as in-patients in St. Giles's Hospital, Camberwell, during the years 1930 to 1934.

[1] ”The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire,” December, 1935, p, 1107. T. M. Parish.

In 374 of these cases where instrumentation was admitted the febrile rate was 882 per cent., and the death rate 37 per cent., while in 246 cases with no history of interference and presumably spontaneous the febrile rate was 57 per cent. and the mortality rate _nil_.

The following table compiled by the Government Statistician shows New Zealand's position in comparison with eleven other countries:--

_Puerperal Mortality per 1,000 Live Births in Eleven Countries, 1934._

------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Total Puerperal | | | Mortality.

| | Puerperal |------------------- Country. | Septic | Sepsis |Including|Excluding |Abortion.| following | Septic | Septic | |Child-birth.|Abortion.|Abortion.

------------------------+---------+------------+---------+--------- Norway | 047 | 057 | 275 | 228 Netherlands | 030 | 073 | 320 | 290 New Zealand | 173 | 070 | 485 | 312 Switzerland | 073 | 082 | 458 | 385 England and Wales | 049 | 153 | 460 | 411 Australia | 145 | 090 | 576 | 431 Irish Free State | 007 | 173 | 468 | 461 Canada | 058 | 123 | 526 | 468 United States of America| 102 | 130 | 593 | 491 Union of South Africa | 067 | 203 | 599 | 532 Scotland | 038 | 230 | 620 | 582 Northern Ireland | 032 | 185 | 627 | 595 -------------------------------------------------------------------

PART II.--THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF ABORTION IN NEW ZEALAND.

As seen by the Committee, the reasons which lead to a resort to abortion may be set out under the following broad headings:--

(1) Economic and domestic hards.h.i.+p.

(2) Fear of labour and its sequelae.