The abortion question will be more publicised this year than ever before if recent events are an indication. In January this year the U.S. Supreme Court decision, making abortion virtually a woman's right, hit the headlines. Then we read that a number of French doctors had signed a manifesto in February for the "freedom of abortion".

Penalties for illegal abortions in France are up to ten years imprisonment. In New Zealand the penalties are even worse : the maximum imprisonment is fourteen years. As our laws stand now no woman can have her pregnancy terminated unless her life is in danger. To quote the N.Z. Criminal Code "Where the act is in good faith to preserve the life of the mother". This does not even allow for cases of rape, incest, foetal deformity or even for under sixteen year olds and women who are mentally Unfit to have children.