What if the mother’s health is in danger?

It is claimed that abortion is necessary if the mother’s health is in danger.

The following is an excerpt from a speech given by Professor Sir William Liley MD, world renowned research professor in perinatal physiology in New Zealand.

"One can be as emotive as one wishes about the distraught state of the mother with the unplanned pregnancy, the under-privileged in our communities, the spectre of world hunger or over-population; one can be as emotive as one likes but one must not put in an emotive appeal for the foetus and this is a very peculiar game, where the rules are different for one party and not for the other."

"This sort of duplicity, that follows on through all the situations one hears about that justify abortion – one hears about the situation of maternal health, maternal physical health and maternal mental health – I can say with complete confidence and I’m sure I would have no contradiction from any obstetrician here tonight or any obstetrician at all, that no matter how crook mother’s heart disease, no matter how rotten the kidneys, no matter how horrible the diabetes, no matter how bonkers she was, that, if in fact she wanted the baby, nobody would be standing around saying ‘but my dear, you must have an abortion to save your life’, I have never come across this situation, nor have any of my professional colleagues in Auckland."

"One of them, some years ago, offered to put up $100,000 to someone who could bring to them a situation in which abortion was essential to save a mother’s life and the $100,000 is still unclaimed!"

"But, you see, if mother doesn’t want the baby an she happens to be a diabetic or is having trouble with the kidneys or have one or so of her heart valves a bit plaguey or has some psychiatric or neurological problem, then she has got it made."

"The fundamental fact is that she doesn’t want the baby!"

"Most of us, as consultant obstetricians, work in hospitals which pride themselves on their ability to get people through pregnancy with the most crazy and hair-raising complications. If mother wants the baby. This is the only criteria!"

The only indication for abortion is that mother does not want the baby.

If a pregnant woman suffers a fatal disease, abortion will not stop the disease process. Mothers have borne healthy babies after kidney transplants and major heart surgery. Pregnancy is a normal bodily process – not a disease.

The possible immediate complications of abortion to the mother are haemorrhage, infection, perforation of the uterus, grief, depression, bouts of uncontrollable crying and nightmares. Any of these complications would cause a considerable setback to a seriously ill person.