Late-term abortion a life and death debate

Dr. David van Gend

January 28, 2008

THE claim that late-term abortion is done only in cases of lethal abnormality or to save the mother's life is demonstrably false.

The truth is that most late abortions, which are 20 weeks of pregnancy, are done to entirely healthy babies of entirely healthy mothers, and by a method so cruel I am reluctant to describe it.

In many cases these are babies older than those in our hospital nurseries, who might have been born alive and adopted to loving parents, but were instead "terminated".

Dr Lachlan De Crespigny and Prof Julian Savulescu (Opinion 23/1) state that late abortion is done only "for major problems as a last resort", giving the example of a lethal heart abnormality in the fetus.

The medical data tells a different story. In Victoria, the most recent data is from the Health Department's 2005 survey of perinatal deaths.

The majority of late abortions were for psychosocial reasons, not fetal abnormality.

The term "psychosocial" means there is no medical problem with the mother or the baby, but the parents request abortion because of economic or emotional stress.

At 23-27 weeks of pregnancy, when other premature babies are being cared for in the hospital nursery, the records for 2005 show that 108 healthy babies were terminated for psychosocial reasons, which is five times as many as those terminated for congenital abnormality.

Late abortion for psychosocial reasons is by far the biggest single cause of "stillbirth" in Victoria.

In 2005, the deliberate ending of these healthy lives accounted for one in every three stillbirths.

Is late abortion merely a tragic response to grave fetal abnormality or risk to the mother's life?

No. Late abortion is done for any reason that sufficiently stresses the parents and its numbers are climbing fast.

Importantly, the report shows that public hospitals almost never perform late abortion for reasons of psychosocial stress.

Since 2001, of the 581 late abortions done for psychosocial reasons, only four were done in a public hospital. The rest were done by private operators.

Private clinics should be regulated so they lose their licence if they perform abortions after 20 weeks.

This would save the lives of 100 premmie babies a year.

Instead of being wide awake to the devastating violence of late abortion, the public is being lulled as to how rare it is and how necessary it is in the face of lethal abnormality.

In my view, if adults are so psychologically disturbed that they would take their healthy, 20-week baby, visibly kicking and jumping in the womb, to an abortion clinic, those people need urgent psychological and social help.

The law must continue to restrain adults, and the doctors who would collaborate in such an assault.

De Crespigny's argument lacks moral balance. It is as if the baby does not exist.

For our generation, late abortion is the test of whether or not our society sinks into savagery, deaf to babies so callously sacrificed to the psychosocial comfort of adults.

David van Gend is a family doctor and university Senior Lecturer living in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, where he and his wife have three boys and four chooks.

He is spokesman for DO NO HARM: Australians for Ethical Stem Cell Research (www.cloning.org.au), and state secretary of the World Federation of Doctors who Respect Human Life.