Reproductive rights

Labour, democracy, and Rosebank

Activists from Workers' Liberty and supporters of Solidarity will be at Labour Party conference and women's conference, 7-11 October in Liverpool. We'll be there to help the efforts of Free Our Unions, the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, India Labour Solidarity, and other campaigns; to sell literature, seek discussions and contacts. There will be demonstrations for the NHS and for abortion rights on Saturday, for free education on Sunday. And agitation for a block on new North Sea oil and gas fields, following the Tories' decision to "max out" licences in...

Choose Life — Have an Abortion: The story of Justyna Wydrzyńska

Since January 2021, Poland has had a near-total ban on abortion. Before this, Poland already had some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, which only allowed for abortions in a small number of scenarios: if the pregnant person has been raped or the pregnancy has resulted from incest; if their life was in danger; or in cases of severe foetal abnormality. The ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal declared the last of these no longer valid. In 2020, there were approximately 1,000 legal abortions. Following the introduction of the new law, that number fell by 90%. Justyna Justyna...

In defence of pregnant people

In the wake of the imprisonment of Carla Foster a motion was put to Sheffield Heely Labour party for the decriminalisation of abortion. The motion included the sentence “It is vital that Labour collectively support progressive legislative change, including decriminalisation and reform to allow women and pregnant people to control their own bodies,” recognising that all pregnant people — including trans men and non-binary people — have a right to reproductive choice. An amendment was put to delete the term “pregnant people”, on the grounds that it could be seen as “offensive”. The individual...

Lessons from the Women's Liberation Movement

The campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s which defeated a series of attacks on the 1967 Abortion Act offer a model that we can learn from. In 1975, the National Abortion Campaign (NAC) was set up to campaign against the White Bill, the first in a series of Private Members’ Bills in the 1970s and 80s which sought to reduce term limits. The NAC was made up of activists from the Women’s Liberation Movement, the socialist left and the labour movement, and it had two aims: to defend the Abortion Act and win real reproductive freedom. The NAC was clear that abortion was a class issue; they knew that to...

The Fight Against Section 219a

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...

Our policy: abortion as early as possible, as late as necessary

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

• 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...

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...

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...

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...

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