The Problem of Abortion The National Council of Women dealt
in the right way On Tuesday with the difficult question of abortion. That the present position is utterly unsatisfactory no one ean question. Deaths fromillegal abortion 'are alarmingly heavy. Figures quoted by one speaker showed that out of 5,655 cases of maternal mortality examined 584, or 12 per cent., were attributed to this cause. The fact is that abortion is constantly being produced or attempted by methods, and in circumstances, which make it gravely dangerous to life, or, when not actually fatal, to health. No relaxation in the existing laws is to be lightly advo- cated, but no relaxation is to be blindly condemned. What the National Council of Women pressed for was the appointment by the Government of a committee to inquire into the incidence of abortion and into the working Of the law dealing with criminal abortion. This follows the precedent of the Brock committee on sterilisation— though no effect has yet been given to that body's findings. Obviously the moral as well as the legal and the medical aspects of abortion must be taken into account by any Committee.
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