Abortion

A matter of life and death

Late Stage Abortions

The New Zealand Herald (10 April 2006), reporting on the high proportion of later-stage abortions in New Zealand compared to comparable countries, mentioned the following statistics.

The article references Wellington Doctor Carol Shand who the article said had explained that "delays were caused by abortion laws, which required women to go through a complex series of steps including numerous medical referrals before they could get an abortion."

This idea that these medical referrals are a bad thing is likely to be used as ammunition in an attempt to loosen this country's abortion laws, a serious concern since most abortions currently performed are probably unlawful.

Carol Shand also mentioned that abortion clinics had staffing shortages. Could that state of affairs be related to abortionists being sued for performing illegal abortions? The NZ Herald reported last year "The anti-abortion group, Right To Life New Zealand, has filed legal action in the High Court at Wellington against the Abortion Supervisory Committee, saying it has misinterpreted the law and allowed too many pregnancy terminations."

Letter to the Editor

A letter to the editor - New Zealand Herald, Saturday 1 April 2006:

Medical ethicist Professor Don Evans, commenting on the case of the midwife charged with manslaughter, said "a fetus has no status in law until the birth".

There is no doubt a fetus does have significant legal status before birth. For example, section 182 of the 1961 Crimes Act makes it a criminal offense to kill an unborn child, punishable by a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment.

A further example is the legal prohibition against procuring an abortion unless undertaken strictly pursuant to the Crimes Act and the 1977 Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act. The long title of the latter act also expressly recognises the "rights of the unborn child".

In the light of the perceived grey area in the law, now is an appropriate time to classify the scope of the rights of the fetus.

I. C. Bassett
Auckland Central

Abortion Law

Are illegal abortions being performed in New Zealand? From the introduction to an online article on the subject:

The abortion law of New Zealand appears to have been interpreted very liberally over recent years by sectors of the medical profession. Indeed the interpretation of the law appears to have been so liberal that it raises questions as to the lawfulness of many of the abortions carried out in New Zealand. The current practice and application of the abortion law is such that it may expose some medical consultants certifying and performing abortions to criminal proceedings and civil claims.

Newsflash: Ultrasound is audible to unborn babies

PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News
Number 568 December 7, 2001 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein,
and James Riordon

ULTRASOUND SCANS ARE AUDIBLE TO A FETUS, researchers reported at this week's meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Ultrasound by definition is sound that lies beyond the range of human hearing. So how can a fetus hear an ultrasound scan? As explained by the researchers (Mostafa Fatemi, Mayo Foundation, Minnesota, fatemi.mostafa@mayo.edu), traditional imaging systems produce ultrasound as sequences of short-duration, high-energy bursts, called "pulse trains." When the pulses enter the body, they tap internal organs at a regular rate. When the ultrasound points at the head of the fetus, its sensitive hearing structure gets vibrated at a rate equal to the number of pulses per second. (Typically, several thousand pulses are transmitted per second in a pulse train, a rate equal to several thousand Hertz.) The fetus senses these vibrations as tones, equivalent to the high notes of a piano. The sound can get loud--about the equivalent of 100-120 decibels of airborne sound, or the level of sound of an approaching subway train. Rather than being akin to a sound from the outside world, though, the sensation is more like what you hear when your finger taps a spot close to an ear-which is why it's inaudible to others, including the mother. What's more, the sound is focused on a tiny, square-millimeter spot, and the sound diminishes rapidly from that spot, so that the fetus could quickly adjust its position to avoid the loudness. Fatemi stresses that their findings do not suggest that this sound is harmful to a fetus. These studies can help explain physicians' observations that a fetus moves vigorously when ultrasound is directed at its head. They eliminate the notion that ultrasound is a passive observation technique, but they may also inspire new ultrasound exams for testing normal fetal function.
(Paper 1pBB6 at meeting; abstract at asa.aip.org/asasearch.html)

Update:

From a correspondent:

A news item the other day suggested that in fact ultrasound did have certain adverse effects, for example, increasing the proportion of left-handed infants born.

Sam

In the incredible photo above, unborn Samuel Armas holds onto a surgeon's finger during an operation to prevent Samuel developing severe brain damage. Samuel has spina bifida, which left part of his spinal cord exposed after the backbone failed to develop. The operation was designed to close the gap and protect the cord, the body's motorway for nerve signals to the brain.

In the United States, abortion is permitted at 21 weeks - Samuel's age. For the above photo in colour (warning - it's graphic) see photographer Michael Clancy's web site.

News

Govt to review law on abortion. 22 December 1999.

Supervising body seeks change to abortion law. 22 December 1999.

Abortion Battle Back. 22 December 1999.

Anti-Abortion Forces Mobilise. 22 December 1999.

Clark backs abortion-law review. 23 December 1999.

It was these events that lead to me making a window banner and displaying it across the bottom of my car's rear windscreen on 23 December 1999. It reads:

During the six months I had the banner on my car I seemed to get a lot more people overtaking me stupidly and needlessly at high revs now. Strange. Also available is this banner, which I haven't used yet:

Click on these banners for a full-size, 150dpi GIF image of the banner.

Contact:

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