Abortion: A personal look.

The sudden interest on abortion in New Zealand on the back of comments by Justice Forrest Miller a few weeks ago has brought all the rabid ones out of the woodwork. Abortion is certainly one of the most polarized of subjects and it is practically impossible to have a rational debate about it without descending into emotive argument. I find myself responding to the emotion on both sides of the debate.

As a Christian, I am appalled by the sheer horror of thousands of lives being cut short before they have even been born. Make no mistake, regardless of whether a foetus has a soul, whether it is a human being or even whether it has legal status, a foetus is living tissue that has the potential to become a human child and adult. This is indisputable. Aborting a foetus is removing that potential, just as surely as killing an adult removes his or her potential. I don’t want to get drawn into the emotive “what if you aborted Gandhi?” and its inevitable reply (“what if you aborted Hitler?”). Suffice it to say that, if no abortion had taken place, the chances are good that there would be a human being born a few months later. Abortion is a great deal more than just “extended contraception”.

Of course, there is much more to the Christian response than this, but I have stuck to the least “religious” aspect of the pro-life stance. Bear in mind that some of the more foam-at-the-mouth “religious right” are coming at the abortion issue more from a legalistic, moralistic point of view which, to me, does not accord with the new testament teachings of forgiveness and compassion. They seem like the crowd who tried to stone the woman caught in adultery – “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Rather than a judgmental attitude, I think that Christians need to reach out with solutions. The true question is not “how can we stop abortion?”, but “How can we provide realistic alternatives to abortion?”

Then I come to my medical view of abortion. As a doctor, I can appreciate that there is a place where abortion becomes the only available human solution to a problem. I have little difficulty with abortion as a treatment for a woman who is otherwise in serious danger of losing her life, if the pregnancy continues. Given a choice of neither party surviving or just the mother surviving, I see little alternative to aborting the foetus. The provisions for rape, incest and the mentally handicapped are not medical provisions and I have little opinion on them beyond the fact that these unfortunates should be offered all the alternatives in an even handed manner, without pressure being applied to accept abortion as the only solution. I have a similar opinion about genetic abnormalities – that all the alternatives need to be discussed fully.

My real concern with current abortion practice is the same as Justice Miller’s. The vast majority of abortions in this country are sanctioned under the mental health provision of the Act. Alternatives are rarely, if ever, discussed, and the criteria used to determine if a woman is at risk of mental harm are extremely flimsy. I do not have a serious problem with the mental health risk for a woman with a major depressive disorder or Bipolar affective disorder, properly diagnosed under DSM IV mental health criteria. I do have a huge problem with a woman just telling her doctor that she is feeling depressed about being pregnant and being granted an abortion. Given that there is mounting evidence that abortion predisposes a woman to serious mental health problems in itself, I find such a minimalist reason to abort is dangerous and unethical. It is on a par with providing a script for narcotics, without examining the patient, purely because they say they have pain. Doctors get struck off the register for this stuff.

I would welcome a proper, above board, debate on this – rather than an underhand de facto abortion on demand. There are real issues over and above the ones I have mentioned. Abortion is not another form of contraception. It is not risk-free although Abortion Services tends to downplay the risks. In between the emotive cries of ?”A women has rights over her body” and “abortion is murder”, there is a rational argument to be made. And in between the right/wrong arguments there are truly compassionate solutions to be found.

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