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 critical delays in accessing treatment and increase risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatisation, and health complications. Some barriers are used by anti-choice individuals and organisations to push women past legal term limits to prevent legal abortion.
We are for the removal of all these barriers and the decriminalisation of abortion, which would lead to it being regulated in the same way as other healthcare procedures.
Our support for abortion rights is based on bodily autonomy. Nobody should be forced to stay pregnant against their wishes.