Organise to defend Abortion Rights

Submitted by Anon on 26 October, 2007 - 8:00 Author: Amy Fisher

Over the last year assorted anti-choice forces, from the Catholic and Anglican churches to conservatives and doctors who drafted the original laws, have launched a concerted campaign to roll back abortion rights. Their main focus is the time limit, currently set at 24 weeks (although in practice much lower due to waiting lists and lack of universal provision).

This week, the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor called for a “change in attitudes” to reduce the number of abortions carried out annually, currently around 200,000. He put emphasis on opposing sex outside marriage as a strategy. David Steel, the architect of the original bill, also weighed in, saying women are “irresponsible” and feel they can turn to abortion if things go wrong.

Both are calling for greater support for young mothers, and Steel supports better sex education and access to contraception to reduce the number of abortions. Of course, these are strategies socialists should support; a real right to choose means being financially able to bring up potential children, and the less women who experience unwanted pregnancy in the first place, the better — abortion is hardly a pleasant or easy experience for women.

But none of these demands can be traded for a reduction in the time limit. The Commons science and technology committee inquiry is currently questioning whether the requirement for two doctor’s permission in order to obtain an abortion is necessary. Removing this requirement would certainly be a gain for women, and is supported by pro-choice groups, but we can’t take our eye off the main area of attack — the time limit. Although Health Minister Dawn Primarolo is expected to tell the committee the government, in line with British Medical Association advice, does not support a reduction in the time limit, campaigners shouldn’t trust this government, or ignore the mounting pressure it’s under from anti-choice campaigns to reconsider.

The science and technology committee is investigating abortion law because of scientific developments affecting the age of viability and foetal pain. Neither the medical advances which allow doctors to save some premature babies at 24 weeks, nor the research into the age at which foetuses feel pain, should have any implications for the time limit. It’s positive that medical science has developed to allow wanted, premature babies to survive at earlier and earlier points in pregnancy, but to allow this to frame abortion debate is dangerous — if the point of viability was 16 weeks, should we roll the time limit back to there?

And the foetal pain debate, dealt with by the incredibly biased and emotive Dispatches documentary this week, has impact only for how abortion procedure is carried out, not for the point in pregnancy at which it should be illegal. Dispatches chose to gloss over this (no surprise they’re rightwing after their hatchet job on the postal workers), adding to the growing conservative consensus that a reduction in the time limit is the next goal for anti-choice campaigners.

Pro-choice activists should be ready for an attack on the 24-week limit, and we need to start organizing now — Abortion Rights do good work lobbying in the back rooms of Parliament but we need to challenge the massive anti-choice movement with a campaign of mass direct action, that involves the women who really suffer when abortion is limited. Working-class women, with no access to private healthcare, have always borne the brunt of attacks on reproductive freedom — not to mention needing a living minimum wage and a strong welfare state in order to have a real right to choose. We need a movement that organizes these women to fight for their rights, instead of just coordinating lobbies of a few MPs.

Feminist Fightback are planning more direct action on abortion rights, after our successful march for Abortion Rights earlier this year. If you’re interested in getting involved, come along to our open steering meeting, Sunday 9 December — more details on feministfightback.org.uk soon.

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