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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 5. March 26 1979

Unjust and Inefficient Law

[unclear: Unjust] and Inefficient Law

[unclear: thether] or not Sandra would now be to get an abortion would depend on [unclear: iber] of variables such as where she lived, the faith of her doctors, the availability of certifying consultants and operating surgeons. None of these are factors which should affect a woman's right to abortion, but because of the present unjust and inefficient law, such factors have assumed great importance.

Hospital Boards restrict staff to seeing patients from within their own district. If there are no certifying consultants / operating surgeons in an area or only those who refuse to consider abortion requests seriously (often after a patient has waited weeks for an appointment) then a trip to Sydney is inevitable. This geographical inequality in the present system has been virtually ignored by the Supervisory Committee, who are rapidly becoming more and more farcical.

The case of New Zealand

The cumbersome delaying procedures of the new law and the inaccessible and inadequate services provided in most areas mean that women that are seeking abortions at a disturbingly late stage of pregnancy. Ideally all abortions should be performed in the first trimester but every month several women between 14-19 weeks pregnant are travelling to Australia. These women are victims of social or geographical isolation. Some have had inaccurate or confusing medical or other advice - others are physically isolated from counselling and abortion services.

The system works differently in Hawkes Bay from other parts of the country. The GP's and operating surgeons work as follows when the woman requests a termination, if their GP thinks they have good case s/he then refers her directly to the operating surgeon. If the operating surgeon agrees, s/he then arranges for another certifying consultant to 'rubber-stamp' the certificate. This has the advantage that the women does not have to go from consultant to consultant only to be turned away by the operating surgeon, as Catherine was. The big disadvantage is that the GP's refuse to refer women to the operating surgeon unless They think the woman has a good case. There have been cases of women having to wait up to three weeks to get in to see the operating surgeon, and it is quite common practice for sterilisation to be performed at the same time as the termination. The Medical Profession in Hawkes Bay is a 'closed shop' with one or two exceptions, likewise the certifying consultants are all very conservative and very cautious. Dr Foley in particular is very anti-abortion, being a past President of SPUC.

Drawing of men with no faces

"There are fust a few simple questions we want to ask you, dearie".

Drawing of workers holding up their fists