Abortion deaths
Sir: Miss E. Rhys-Williams believes that the Abortion Act should be restricted to protect women against themselves, as abortion is really very dangerous, though most doctors and most women do not seem to realise this.
Forty years ago, when the League of National Life flourished, just such views were expressed in relation to birth control. The League held that birth control was immoral. It recognised, however, that by the nineteen thirties this view was no longer taken seriously except among Roman Catholics. It was therefore necessary to demonstrate that in addition to being immoral it was also 'dangerous.' Happily, in the nick of time, the League's president, a Roman Catholic doctor, Frederick McCann, discovered a disturbing condition which he named 'Malthusian Uterus.' The symptoms of' this dismal condition, which afflicted women who sought to resist their natural fate of having a baby each year, included "a slight uniform enlargement of the womb, uniform softening of the cervix and body, increased loss of blood in menstruation, increased mucoid discharge,” and drawn appearance in the woman's face," The Birth Controllers, Fryer, Peter (1965).
Dr McCann was probably quite sincere in his belief that birth control was dangerous, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Miss Rhys-Willaims is probably equally sincere In her conviction that abortion is dangerous, even though the mortality figures have now shown for several years in succession that early legal abortion is
much safer than childbirth. She is also, no doubt, sincere in her conviction that the reasons that the Communist dictatorships of Eastern Eruope are now restricting their abortion legislation owe nothing to a desire to swell the ranks of their future armies and labour force.
Madeleine Simms
17 Dunstan Road, London NWII.
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