Protection of Conscience Project Library
Service, not Servitude
Extract
It is suggested by Professor H. C. McLaren (12 May, p. 329) that one termination of pregnancy every three months is all that a consultant “practising modern obstetrics, offering compassion and advice” should be doing. This statement is, with respect, that of someone living in another world.
Binning R. (Correspondence) Attitudes to Abortion. Br Med J. 1974;2(5916):441.
Extract
The right to conscientious objection is embodied in the Abortion Act, and the Lane Committee has not suggested that this section should be amended. It is difficult to understand why you advocate that a consultant gynaecologist, alone among surgical specialists, should be compelled to perform a particular operation other than on the basis of his own judgement. The right to conscientious objection to the performance of therapeutic abortion continues to be the law of the land. . . But it must remain the duty of the medical profession to protest that therapeutic abortion involves the destruction of human life.
Banwell G. (Correspondence) Attitudes to Abortion. Br Med J. 1974;2(5915):383. Available from:
Extract
You suggest that while a conscience clause was “manifestly essential” seven years ago, now “the situation has changed.”In what way? The extermination chambers of the Third Reich were no less of an affront to civilization at the end than they were at the beginning of their existence; the few who continued to speak against them were every bit as right ultimately as initially. Lest it be said that this is quite remote from the British abortion situation, I record that I have been faced with a healthy and affluent young woman demanding abortion”because the father is a Jew.” That the abortion was carried out, though not by me, may give some of your readers pause for thought.
Scott J. (Correspondence) Attitudes to Abortion. Br Med J. 1974 May 11;2(5914):329-330.
Extract
Abortion for a wide range of indications is, however, now an established part of conventional medical practice in Britain and the committee seemed a little impatient with those who would not recognize that fact. A conscience clause was manifestly essential when the Act came in, since many gynaecologists had sincere moral or ethical objections to abortion on some of the grounds introduced by the new Act. Seven years later the situation has changed. As the committee points out,the number and attitude of gynaecologists are important in determining the level of service which can be provided, so that “it is inevitable that the health authorities should prefer for appointment to certain posts those who see abortion as properly part of clinical gynaecological practice.” What this implies is that a young doctor may find some difficulty in taking up a career in gynaecology in the N.H.S. if he is fundamentally opposed on ethical grounds to abortion in the terms of the Act.
BMJ. (Editorial) Attitudes to Abortion. Br Med J. 1974;2(5910):69-70.
Extract
The fact remains that, however technically safe and socially acceptable induced abortion becomes, it is a destructive procedure with some onerous implications. . . We even tolerate the ridiculous and completely unsupportable notion that a fetus is parasitic until 20 weeks and somehow human after that time. It is my hope that we shall reconsider our age-old pledge to preserve life and relieve pain and not sell out to the madness of social expediency.
Curran E. (Correspondence) Abortion and the pregnant teenager. Can Med Assoc J. 1974 Feb 02;110(3):261.
Extract
In the 20th century it is unrealistic to teach children that babies are made through acts of sexual intercourse and not to teach them when they become adolescents how to make love without making an unwanted baby. . . Contraceptives should be easily available to every boy and girl who is sexually active and responsible enough to admit it by seeking birth control. . . .It is socially irresponsible for a doctor to condemn a girl for asking for the pill, or to refuse it to her in the hope that it will stop her from having sexual intercourse . . . . He must also know that his denial of the pill to a girl forces her to adopt less effective methods of birth control or to use no method at all, and that when she subsequently becomes pregnant and asks for abortion the blame is as much his as it is that of the girl or her boyfriend.
Williams WV. (Correspondence) Abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1974 Feb 02;110(3):261-262.
Extract
The article “Abortion and the pregnant teenager” by Lipper et al (Can Med Assoc J 109: 852, 19173) is one of a series of articles which abortion clinics will undoubtedly produce in an effort to justify their actions. My initial reaction was to pick at the many inconsistencies in the article . . .But then it seemed that in doing so I was missing the point. The authors have many figures and graphs to demonstrate their findings. It is all so cold and scientific – so pat. But they have left out one fact which is of paramount importance and renders all the others meaningless: 100% of the babies died.
Shea PE. (Correspondence) Abortion and the pregnant teenager. Can Med Assoc J. 1974 Jan 19;110(2):143.
Extract
In June 1971 the Canadian Medical Association at its General Council meeting passed the following resolution after some hours of lively debate: “The Canadian Medical Association agrees that there is justification, on non-medical grounds, for the deliberate termination of pregnancy.” The vote was 78 for and 74 against, a majority of 4 votes in 152 or 2.6%. . . . The difference between a pagan society and a Christian society is being eroded and we as a traditionally Christian society are rapidly reverting to a pagan one where self-indulgence without restraint, without responsibility, is the order of the day.
Clare R. (Correspondence) Abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1973 Dec 01;109(11):1081-1082.
Extract
In the eight years since graduating from a London teaching hospital I have managed to do the “right jobs,” get the required fellowship and membership, and even obtained the B.T.A. (Been To America). However, I now discover that to have a conscientious objection to abortion on demand precludes one from continuing to practise in the specialty in this country. The head of department of a teaching hospital stated to me at a recent appointments board that there was now no place for a gynaecologist with a conscientious objection to abortion on demand to practise within the National Health Service and “you should cut your losses and emigrate.” . . . I have personal knowledge of six other doctors in a similar case who have either left the country or have been forced to enter general practice.
Walley RL. (Correspondence) Conscientious Objection to Abortion. Br Med J. 1972;4(5834):234.
Extract
On a number of occasions in the past year I have referred patients for therapeutic abortion where pregnancy had occurred following temporary discontinuation of oral contraceptives on medical advice. . . Last year the Medical Handbook of the International Planned Parenthood Federation was distributed widely to Canadian physicians by the Department of National Health and Welfare. In this authoritative source it is stated: “The earlier views, that oral contraceptives should not be used for more than two (later changed to four) years without a break are no longer tenable.”
Ball MJ. (Correspondence) Iatrogenic pregnancy. Can Med Assoc J. 1972;107(8):727. Available from: