ASC Report Ignores NZ Research

12-Dec-2009

Media Release

10 December 2009

ASC Report Ignores NZ Research on Abortion Impact

Latest Abortion Supervisory Committee Report reveals decrease in abortions, workforce problems and ignores NZ research on mental health issues associated with abortion.

Released on Monday 7th December, the 2009 Abortion Supervisory Committee Report shows 17,940 abortions were performed from January to 30th December, 2008.

That is 892 less abortions than in the same period for 2007.

We can’t pinpoint the reason for the decrease in the numbers, but coincidentally Voice for Life ran a nationwide radio and press advertising campaign “Abortion Changes You” in early December, 2008, aimed at Kiwis aged between 18 and 29.

Workforce Issues

On page 18, the ASC notes that there are very few abortionists under the age of 50 and the majority plan to retire after the next ten years.

The ASC intends to raise recruitment problems with the Royal Australia New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of General Practitioners.

This is a serious problem for abortion providers in the Western world, the majority of medical students and young doctors don’t wish to be involved in abortion. It is unpleasant and contentious work.

Overseas abortion providers and the medical elite are talking seriously about refusing accreditation to medical graduates unless they agree to perform abortions. This attempt to “mainstream” abortion services is potentially coercive, threatening to override conscientious objection safeguards and Voice for Life intends to closely monitor any such developments in NZ.

On page 21, the ASC note their “great concern” and “disappointment” at the “lack of secure provision of second trimester services to women.”

This complaint is about the continuing problem of retaining nurses who will do the work, which involves re-assembling the body parts of babies to ensure that nothing has been left behind in the uterus to cause infection.

Some years ago, Christchurch Hospital reported that most of their experienced nurses had had to be replaced by specially recruited overseas staff – and the problem occasionally surfaces in Auckland (details can be supplied on request).

Abortion and Mental Health

98.7 percent of the abortions performed in 2008, were approved on mental health grounds.

Dr Rosy Fenwicke, the only medical doctor on the ASC, is herself an operating surgeon, performing abortions at Wellington Hospital’s Level J Clinic.

Missing from the 2009 ASC Report (and earlier Reports) is any acknowledgement of the research published in 2006 and 2009 by the Health and Development Study Team from the University of Otago: David Fergusson, John Harwood and Joseph Boden.

The research undermined the mental health grounds for abortion, finding that women who carried to term initially unwanted pregnancies had better mental health outcomes than women who chose abortion.

To be fair, 90% of those women maintained that they had made the right choice, but this raised the question of what options and help available had been raised in pre-abortion counseling – and whether viewing the ultrasound scan could have made a difference.

Voice for Life is greatly concerned about the apparent conflict of interest in Dr Fenwicke’s role as an abortion surgeon and her oversight of certifying consultants approving abortions on mental health grounds that have been shown to be scientifically spurious.

We are also concerned by the lack of interest by the leadership of the Colleges of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and General Practitioners to the mental health problems of post-abortive women identified by the research.

ENDS

Contacts:

Mr Bernard Moran,

Communications Manager,

Voice For Life Inc

Ph (09) 443 0995 or 021 934 424

Email: bernard@voiceforlife.org.nz

Miss Catherine Gillies

National President

Voice For Life Inc

Ph (06) 867 7335 or 021 432 020

Email: catherine@gilliesbiz.co.nz