Women's Fightback, Feminism

In Germany, abortion is covered by section 218 of the criminal code. It stands as an “offence against life”, alongside murder and manslaughter. It is only exempt if it is carried out during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and if the woman has received counselling from an authorised advisor and has waited three days before the procedure. Until July 2022 a significant legal obstacle to abortion was section 219a of the criminal code. This law prohibited publicly offering, announcing, or advertising abortions. In practice this meant that doctors were prevented by law from informing patients that...

In April this year, members of Workers ’ Liberty convened for our annual democratic conference. We passed this policy, launching a programme of activity campaigning for the decriminalisation of abortion, the abolition of term limits and expansion of reproductive rights. Policy barriers to safe abortion include criminalisation, mandatory waiting times, the requirement that approval must be given by other people or institutions, financial charges (e.g. for some migrants), insufficient levels of provision and limits on when during pregnancy an abortion can take place. Such barriers can lead to...

• Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global , by Sian Norris (Verso, 2023) In the last year, four women in the UK have been prosecuted for carrying out illegal abortions. This is especially shocking when you consider that in the 160 years prior there were only three. There has been a corresponding rise in criminal investigations, which are not only invasive and traumatic for those involved, but also suggest that further prosecutions are coming down the line. But why now? In her book, Bodies Under Siege, Sian Norris sets out the links between the rising far...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...