Women's Fightback, Feminism

Abortion: our demands

In June this year, Carla Foster was sentenced to two years in prison for having an abortion after the legal term limit of 24 weeks. The case highlighted just how limited and fragile our abortion rights are. She was sentenced under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. This law is still the foundation of abortion law in Britain: it criminalises all abortions and carries the maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The 1967 Abortion Act legalised abortion under certain conditions, with an authorised provider. But as it didn’t repeal the 1861 Act, abortion remains illegal unless certain...

Notes from Berlin: what we can learn from the hospital movement

In September 2021 thousands of healthworkers launched an indefinite strike at Charité and Vivantes, two of Berlin’s large municipal hospitals. So began the Krankenhausbewegung - Berlin’s Hospital Movement. After a month, they won. A year later, nurses in the UK underwent their own industrial awakening, as the Royal College of Nursing balloted for nationwide strike action over pay. The differences between the disputes could not have been more stark, as a series of obstacles — some erected by anti-union laws, others by their own union — combined to defeat the UK nurses, despite overwhelming...

Fourth woman faces illegal abortion charge

Another woman due for trial in a UK court next year for carrying out an abortion. “It is clear that prosecutors are taking a much more aggressive stand against women with unexplained pregnancy loss or who are suspected of having an illegal abortion”, Jonathan Lord, co-chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told The Times . There had been only three such trials in the previous 160 years. Pandemic Bethany Cox faces charges of child destruction and procuring her own miscarriage when she was just 19 years old, using the abortion pill misoprostol. The accusation relates to...

Free Sarah Jane Baker

Sarah Jane Baker is currently a political prisoner. On Wednesday 12 July 2023 she was arrested because of a speech she made at Trans Pride (8 July). In it she said, “If you see a TERF, punch them in the fucking face”. It was not a helpful thing to say, and she has publicly apologised for it. It was said in anger, to be outrageous and to give confidence to her audience. She didn’t imagine that anyone would actually act on it. Since her release from prison in 2019 Sarah has never been violent to anyone. She has been the victim of transphobic assaults and harassment but has never retaliated. The...

Why are thousands of women jailed each year?

On 12 June 2023 Carla Foster was sentenced to a 28-month custodial term for carrying out an abortion that exceeded the legal term limit of 24 weeks. Foster’s sentence has since been reduced on appeal to a 14 month suspended sentence and she has been released from prison. This case has reignited calls for the full decriminalisation of abortion. Demonstrations are planned for 2 September. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (OAPA), the Victorian law that Foster was prosecuted under, was passed during a time when women had little medical and legal rights over their bodies. OAPA came into law...

Pro-choice plans for 2 September

The latest official figures , recently released, covering the first six months of 2022, show that 123,219 abortions took place in England and Wales. It’s an increase on the 105,488 over the same period in 2021. As Abortion Rights chair Kerry Abel has commented, the cause may be the cost-of-living crisis. The big majority of abortions were in the early stages of pregnancy: 67% up to and including seven weeks gestation; 93% up to and including 12 weeks, and 98% up to and including 17 weeks gestation. Telemedicine accounted for fully 50% of terminations each quarter since April to June 2021. Abel...

Surveillance cameras tighten hijab rule

An Iranian criminal court has ordered a woman to perform 270 hours of unpaid labour cleaning public spaces, for breaking the country’s mandatory hijab law. The work will include cleaning the buildings of the Interior Ministry in Tehran. The verdict was based on images from "smart city cameras,”. There has been an increase in surveillance cameras as part of efforts to enforce the mandatory hijab law and crackdown on protests. In April, national police chief Ahmad Reza Radan announced the launch of a “smart” programme involving surveillance cameras to identify women failing to cover their hair...

Decriminalise abortion; expand provision; as early as possible, as late as necessary

The trial and jailing of Carla Foster for an abortion past legal term limits should be a catalyst for a new movement for abortion rights. Mobilisations and campaigning so far have been led by liberal groups like the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and the Fawcett Society. They argue that the rest of the UK is now out of step with Northern Ireland, where a 2019 law legalising abortion put a moratorium on abortion-related criminal prosecutions. It is true dealing with abortion within criminal law stigmatises all abortions and leads to unjust sentencing like that of Carla Foster. But we...

Model Motion: As Early as Possible, As Late As Necessary

The sentencing of Carla Foster in June, for procuring drugs to induce an abortion past the legal term limit, has been a stark reminder of how limited our reproductive rights really are. This is unjustifiable. No one should be imprisoned for ending a pregnancy, and no should be forced to stay pregnant against their wishes. Below is a model motion to submit to your Labour Party or trade union branch, calling for the decriminalisation of abortion and the abolition of term limits. Please amend as appropriate and let us know when it has been passed: office@workersliberty.org.uk MOTION: AS EARLY AS...

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