The Linacre Quarterly

Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 6

May 1971 Ramifications of Permissive James A. Fitzgerald

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Recommended Citation Fitzgerald, James A. (1971) "Ramifications of Permissive Abortion," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 38 : No. 2 , Article 6. Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol38/iss2/6 of the Borgias, the Medicis, and ple anomalies, I am reasonably certain, of homicidal bent. will not survive. I can guara.ntee its death with an injection of morphine. Our gynecologic patients, young and The pro-abortionists have estab­ old, with widely disseminated cancer, a new course · for medical prac­ cannot be cured with present medical rs. The new pathway has as its knowle_dge. With sufficient pentothal

the recreativity of the physician as in a syringe and the availability of the I ', erminant in death. There is an patient's antecubital vein, we can con­ · in priorities in healing. · Its clude the matter in seconds. The • i ce is physical, social , economic, querulous seniles serve no purpose, are aphic. If these are not feasible burdensome and expensive to main­ alternative is now proposed; death tain; in our new role our service to be elected. them can have only one intention. ' . '

Ramifications of Permissive Abortior This divergence from previous goals, There are other categories for termi­ this choice that hitherto did not exist, nation therapy: the refractory alco­ is a source of cultural and religious holic; the insane; the defective child; trauma to many in the medical profes­ the habitual criminal; the child James A. Fitzgerald, M.D.* sion. The physician is asked to see molester; the psychopathic personali­ with a new eye, to evaluate with a ty; the aberrant sexualist. We thus different mind, and to determine with proceed from to criteria that had riever a prior worth. to to . Any in­ The doctor is asked to begin at the tolerable deviation in this new beginning, to consider abortion, to philosophy comprises a disease. We ... condone it and practice it. And even may unconscionably broaden our not accepting it, the careening mind definitions and consider as deviant once having entertained the concept those of varying ethnic pattern, in­ The effects of permissive abortion goal or objective. The growt. in the leaps on to what follows; the appraisal dividuals not co-religionists, others are protean. knowledge of public health. he es­ ofthe patient not only in terms of life, with different skin coloration, as well Accepting the pro-abortionists' tablishment of effective thet ·>ies in but death. . as those with contrary political beliefs. thesis at once subtly alters the physici­ contagious processes, in one i ~ y and thus enters the therapeutic an's attitude toward the patient and in degenerative diseases, the lief of arena. Prior to pernussiVe abortion, I am the public's concept of the physician. pain with analgesics, opia " and sure that I and my confreres were From Hippocrates to the liberalized anesthetics - all these V\ ·e ac­ The patient, who from the begin­ scrupulous in not emptying a uterus in abortion era, the practitioners of medi­ complished to further tL vital ning of. medicine considered the prac­ a woman threatening to miscarry until cine were the custodians and guardians mechanisms. Means and me a ~ tes for titioner as exerting his role only in the we had established with certainty that of the life process. From Withering anti-life purposes were relegate , to the direction of the healing arts, for the and his foxglove to Wakesman and his the pregnancy would not continue. first time will comprehend that he Streptomycin, each advances in medi­ Some of us waver now. The weeks of may be evaluated in another aspect. cine was so designated because it bleeding which establish the apparent This circumstance will occur when his contributed to the easeful mainten­ ineffectuality of our treatment, the situation is grave , his prognosis poor, ance of life. Medic.ine had no other patient's personal and economic in­ or his condition terminal. It will occur convenience, coupled with our recent quite logically when the afflicted is no exposure to liberalization, may longer utilitarian. It may happen when persuade us to perform· the curettage. the family tires of the trial. Not many yet, I assure you; but we are James A. Fitzgerald, a frequent contri­ only at the beginning of our new butor to the Linacre Quarterly, is in As abortion on demand is abortion the private practice of obstetrics and thinking. on request and the aborted would not gynecology in Watertown, New York; be consulted even if they could be, the is an Associate in Obstetrics and Once we are established in this new seriously ill will find that their demise Gynecology at Upstate Medical therapeutic repertoire, we may expect is wrought by parties other than them­ Center, Syracuse; and Clinical Instruc­ to advance further for the cause of selves. There is little reason for the tor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at death. The newborn child with multi- profoundly sick to sign their own Syracuse University Medical School.

103 102 Linacre Quarterly death permits; many would be in­ in California in 1969, it i· fairly . By. 1968 the were shortages of operating rooms and staff, capable, others would not have a full reliably estimated that 76,00t illegal million. Authorities now report and has taken valuable time from the comprehension of their commitment, aboritons were performed upl Cali­ concern that the combination of busy gynecologists' practice. It ·has and some, without wisdom, might fornia women during that time ortion and contraception has adversely affected the training and refuse. • •u."'r~:;u the Japanese population so far teaching of junior m~dical staff and the older age groups that com­ students. Abortion patients have pre­ New York City health aut Hi ties interests are now openly pre­ empted hospital space required for A death-oriented society might report 9000 legal abortions in 1 ~ first a severe labor shortage by the women with "genuine gynecological more rationally actuate euthanasia be­ six weeks of the new law, and .oject f the 1970's. The gross repro­ disorders". Cases have been reported fore permissive abortion. There may 100,000 legal abortions in Ne York n rate has shrunk from 2.2 to of women with cervical cancer whose be more compassion ·in extinguishing City by the end of the first y{ . The admission to the hospital was delayed the life of the ill than in causing the increment from the rest of N York than 1.0. There has been a sharp se in the population of children . because priority was . given to abor- death of a normal fetus. There is an state will be added to this fig u · If we the age of 15 , and a sharp tions. obvious disparity in offering death to include the figures from Iaska, se in the population over 65. these two categories; one is always Hawaii , Colorado, and other ~ a s of se in political and economic power Evidence from Britain and other sick, the other usually well. But being liberalized policy, the total 1 y ap- Japan are now seeing the dis­ countries practising abortion indicates . an artful society, we find it easier to proach one half to one milb legal that "easy abortion can in fact en­ destroy what we cannot actually see abortions in one year in Ameri advantages of a falling birth rate over a 22 year period. Labor shortage, con­ courage unplanned pregnancy." The and what we have not really known. Royal College feels that abortion of­ Given time and practice, we cari over­ This carnival of death is c rasted sumer shortage , and disproportionate numbers of the population over age 65 fers little protection to a woman from come this inhibition and convert the with the fact that the birth ra in the "further mistakes or misadventure," waning quick into the final dead. United States is near its recen ·ecord are causing a restudy of present policies of abortion and birth control. and that it does not "necessarily safe­ low. The Demographers also Jecify guard her physical and mental health. that population density in the Jnited Eight British maternal deaths were The public is beginning to see us in States is not a problem (the Jnited The effects of permissive abortion a different cast. will discern that we recorded out of the 27 ,331 abortions It States has only 56 persons pe quare are protean ... supply a new service. It is beginning to in this survey. This reflects a mortality mile, compared to 588 for ;gland . 1. The acceptance or tolerance of guess that we have new potentials, and rate of 0.3/1000 abortions, which was and 975 for Holland). While p pie in abortion alters the attitude of it wonders about our other novelties. higher than the maternal mortality for America have been migrati· into the physician to the paqent and For want of a cure it will anticipate the public's concept of the medi­ all abortions, including criminal, for a cities and suburbs, states 1 the that we may propose a· more con­ comparable period in England and Dakotas and Wyoming hav been cal profession. venient solution in place of expensive, 2. Permissive abortion has actuated Wales. '• losing population, leaving va open ·' inconvenient care. Already there is a ,. spaces that were once inhabitei. the new field of ~ termination chorus of voices chanting the benefits therapy. of termination therapy; they have 3. In at least one society, it has so become more audible and insistent Japan is the most crowded r ~ i on in altered age-population propor­ with the advent of permissive abor­ the world. It has 102 million 1 t)ple­ tions that the young in that tion. The new physician is a bene­ half as many as the United Sta ·s - all society decline and the aged factor if possible, a terminator if im­ crammed into a string of na w is­ increase. possible. This is the new image of the lands that are smaller in total a. ·a than 4. There is evidence that easy healing arts. It flows from the cornu­ Montana. Abortion has been p< mitted abortion fosters illegitimacy, and copia of abor_tions unlimited. in Japan fqr twenty years, · 1d the no evidence that it has appreci­ chief method for curbing the b · th rate ably reduced the figures for il­ is induced abortion. Birth com ol pills The data on legal abortions now legal abortions. are used very little if at all in Japan. 5. Permissive abortion has other being performed in the United States The government has not apprc_-·red the is impressive. Rates in some major diverse effects ~ for the most sale of contraceptive steroids ;: nd the part not beneficial. hospitals have reached 300-500 abor­ medical profession believes t l-. • se pills tions per 1000 births, and continue to to be too dangerous for -·: . The increase. In California, since the libera­ The more immediate effects of per­ intra-uterine device is not po: .ular in missive abortion are outlined in a lized law took effect in November, Japan and is officially prohibited. 1967, the rate for the entire state report of the Royal College of Obste­ doubled for each six month period. In tricians and Gynecologists. The September, 1970, it approached 60 In 1947 there were 2.7 mi llion live volume of abortions, which has been ~unning at upwards of 55 ,000 per year per 1000 births. Yet, despite the births in Japan. In 1953 there were 1.9 f · ~ I 15 ,000-odd legal abortions performed million live births and 1.07 million m England and Wales alone , has caused

105 104 Linacre QuarterlY May, 1971