In the larger urban areas the position is even more unfortunate, as the following instance will indicate:—
Maternal Mortality in Urban Areas for the Five-year Period, 1930-34.
| Urban Area | Live Births. | Total Maternal Deaths. | Maternal Death-rate per 1,000 Live Births. | Maternal Deaths excluding Septic Abortion. | Maternal Death-rate per 1,000 Live Births excluding Septic Abortion. | Deaths from Septic Abortion. | Death rate from Septic Abortion per 1,000 Live Births. |
| Auckland | 14,290 | 81 | 5·67 | 55 | 3·85 | 26 | 1·82 |
| Wellington | 11,690 | 61 | 5·22 | 32 | 2·74 | 29 | 2·48 |
| Christchurch | 9,599 | 51 | 5·31 | 29 | 3·02 | 22 | 2·29 |
| Dunedin | 5,960 | 24 | 4·03 | 17 | 2·96 | 7 | 1·17 |
| Total, four urban areas | 41,539 | 217 | 5·22 | 133 | 3·20 | 84 | 2·02 |
| Total, remainder of Dominion | 58,623 | 273 | 4·66 | 204 | 3·48 | 69 | 1·18 |
In the case of the four urban areas deaths from septic abortion account for approximately two-fifths of the total maternal mortality.
With these cases excluded, the maternal mortality associated with child-birth proper was 3.20 per 1,000 live births.
Clearly, any comparison between different maternity services should be made on the basis of these latter figures alone.
What is the Cause of this High Incidence of Deaths From Septic Abortion.
The evidence offered to the Committee by medical witnesses indicates conclusively that sepsis, and death from sepsis particularly, is almost entirely due to illegal instrumental interference.
Spontaneous abortion, provided that proper medical care is given, rarely results in sepsis. Therapeutic abortion, done with all the safeguards of modern surgical practice, is associated with very little acute sepsis.
But criminal abortion is associated with an extremely high sepsis rate.