ABORTING YOUR FIRST BABY? YOUR SECOND IS LIKELY TO BE PREM (Letter published in Dom Post, Feb 21)

It’s a crying shame - for some women, maybe literally - that New Zealand's Newborn mortality figures are ‘stagnating’ (Feb 21).

Last year, the World Health Organisation showed prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under 5. Released just today, a study of 600,000 Scottish mothers over 3 decades shows termination of a first pregnancy increases the risk of premature birth by 37%. A second pregnancy following a first which is aborted is more liable to the complication of pre-eclampsia, which can be fatal for both mother and baby.

Prematurity is also linked to lung disease, cerebral palsy, jaundice and mental health problems in later life. However these findings conflict sharply with the official advice of Britain’s NHS, which downplays such dangers.

Let's hope Health Minister Jonathan Coleman doesn't indulge in any such prevarication, because it's clear that the simplest measure to prevent deaths in our newborns would be a decrease in abortions. 

But if the Prime Minister – ironically pregnant herself - removes the protection of law from the endangered unborn, she will inevitably add to the sad stats of babies who die, sooner or later, as a result of their premature birth.