A8 -Sunday News, August 10, 1980

Necessity or convenience ?

By CHRIS LLOYD ”

OCTOR M has been a member of the
Lions Gate Hospital Abortion Com-
mittee for 18 months and previously
served on it for two three-month intervals 12-
15 years ago.

He has been a family
physician on the North
Shore for 19 years, has five
children of his own and has
never performed an abor-
tion.

There are six members of
the abortion committee,
appointed by the Lions Gate
Hospital board of directors
from names submitted to the
Medical Staff Advisory
Council by the medical staff
of the hospital.

Dr. M is one of the three
members of the committee
who meet every week for
about an hour to consider
the 12-18 applications for

therapeutic abortion at
Lions Gate.
He regards the weekly

meetings as a chore - “a bit
of a pain in the neck” - and
says of his reasons for being
on the committee:
“Somebody's got to doit.”

He feels its members are
caught in the middle of the
abortion controversy but
that everyone should take
their turn at serving on one
or other of the various
hospital committees.

Dr. M is in favor of
abortion on demand,
“generally speaking” and

feels abortion is available on
this basis at Lions Gate
Hospital.

The only exception to
approval, he says, is when a
pregnancy has gone beyond
20 weeks and the committee
has only had one such in-
Stance - it’s only rejection -
this year.

Dr. M sees the role of the
committee as checking that
the referral doctor has made
the right decision = in
recommending abortion for
the patient, saying that most

family physicians he knows
are also in favor of abortion
on demand.

“Basically, are ap-
proving the cases = as
presented,” he says.

He frankly states that the
purpose of the committee ts
to fulfil the legal
requirements of the
Abortion Act.

Dr. M acknowledges that
many people may regard it
as a “rubber stamp com-
mittee” and feels that most
doctors would be in favor of
doing away with the com-
mittee if its existence was
not a condition of the
Criminal Code.

Asked whether he is
satisfied that there are
medically valid reasons for
one out of three pregnant
women admitted to Lions
Gate to have abortions, he
answers: “I find that statistic
a little much.”

Dr. M appears surprised
when it is pointed out that
the hospital administration
confirms the statistic.

we

“I wasn't aware that one
out of three pregnancies is
aborted,” he says. “I would
have thought it was one out
of every six or 10. We don't
sit down and compile
Staustics as a committee.”

Doesn't he keep a record
of the number of abortions

approved each year?

“Y don't sit down and
count the number oof
abortions that have been

camied out in the last year ”

When asked if he ts not
aware that the hospital says
it performed about 800
abortions last year to about
1,400 hve births. Dr M
looks thoughtful and pauses
to consider

“IT would think that must
be about right,” he answers.

But he comments on such
statistics of abortions per
live births: “I have never
really thought about it in
those terms. It doesn't seem
to apply to the patients I see
(irtmy family practice).”

“lT think it sounds like a
high percegtage and I'm not
particularly happy about the
type of statistic. But I tend to
look as situafions more as
individual circumstances.”

When his attention its
drawn to the statistic given
by Lions Gate ad-
ministration in respect of
abortions at Vancouver
General Hospital, which
puts the figures there at two
abortions for each live birth,
Dr. M. comments.:

“I find the VGH statistic
kind of staggering. If that 1s
what people want, I think

the service has to be
provided for them but I
would be included to say

that if you talk to anyone
doing abortions that none of
them are happy about the
procedure.”

xk Kw *

Of accusations by
abortion opponents that the
committee runs an “abortion
mill” or a “foetal abattoir’,
he says:

“I don't feel particularly
happy about that. We have
been put in the position
where we have to do the
dirty work.”

As to why there ts even the
legal requirement for
abortion committees, Dr. M
ponders:

“I'm not sure what
intention of the Criminal
Code was with = abortion
committees. I think it was to
eliminate some abortions
which might be done
otherwise. But, this 1s
not happening ~

Pro-Life organizatioa
opponents of abortion,
whom the hospital fears are
trying to dominate = the
membership of the LGH

the

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board of directors to end
abortion at the hospital by
refusing to appoint an
abortion committee, draw
attention to the Hyprocratic
oath:

The principle, confirmed
by the World Medical
Association in 1970, is a
declaration by doctors that
they will “maintain the
utmost respect for human
life from the time of con-
ception”.

Dr. M says he does not
recall ever having made such
an oath and the opinion of
the chairman of Lions Gate's
Medical Staff Advisory
Council, Dr. Frank Sigurd-
son, is that doctors have not
been required to make such
a declaration for years.

Dr. M_ says: “My own
attitude is of trying to give
my patients the best possible
care for the maintenance of
their health.”

He feels that providing

abortion to a woman who
has already made up her
mind to have one 1s a better
alternative to the role
doctors had to take and to
the risks women underwent
in the days before legal
abortion.
“dT think my attitude is
colored by my experience m
practice, during the pre and
post abortion era,” he says.

“In my early days” in

FOETUS AT 14 WEEKS. The committee approves

Scorn! Ea

abortions for cases as presented up to 20 weeks of

pregnancy.

practice I had a lot of
pregnant patients come to
me who wanted abortions
and there were no legal ways
they could have one.

“I spent a lot of time trying
to convince them they
shouldn't have an abortion
and I don’t recall ever
talking a patient out of it.
Invariably they found
somewhere to get it done.
although I tried all sorts of
scare tactics about the
complications.”

“I have seen at least one
girl die in our emergency
department from a_ septic
abortion and I used to
describe it to them.”

He says of such horrors:
“It happened often enough

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that it was an uncomfortable
situation to deal with” and
he says of abortion, in
comparison: “I think it is the
lesser of two evils.”

Even so, he feels the
incidents of unwanted
pregnancies are higher now
than they use to be.

“I think it ts the general
attitude of society of
pregnancy and sexual ac-
tivity,” he says.

The doctor considers that
one of the most fundamental
problems is people failing to
take responsibility for
preventing pregnancy in a
society tolerant to sexual
activity.

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