THE NEED FOR MORE FACTS ABOUT ABORTION
In England and Wales the number of induced abortions for residents rose from 22,300 in 1968 to 108,600 in 1972, a rise in abortion rate from 2-4 to 11-5 per thousand women of childbearing age, it is clear that in this country the medical profession has shown an increasingly liberal attitude towards abortion.
Abstract
In England and Wales the number of induced abortions for residents rose from 22,300 in 1968 to 108,600 in 1972 (Tietze and Dawson, 1973), a rise in abortion rate from 2-4 to 11-5 per thousand women of childbearing age. It is clear, therefore, that in this country the medical profession has shown an increasingly liberal attitude towards abortion. This was also shown by Cartwright and Waite (1972) in their study of attitudes among general practitioners before and after the Abortion Act of 1968. Leaving aside moral and philosophical arguments, there is still a great variation in opinion about the place of induced abortion in fertility control. Much of this difference is due to the lack of factual evidence concerning the sequelae of the procedure. One of the main problems is that changes have occurred so rapidly in public and professional attitudes, and in operative techniques, that many issues once thought to be all important have become bypassed events, while the increasingly widespread use of induced abortion reveals new problems and poses new questions which were not, and could not be answered at an earlier time (Illsley and Hall, 1973).