By Kerry Abel
Pro-choice campaigners have faced trying times since the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US in 2022. The effects of the anti-choice laws in anti-abortion states in the US, aided by the Trump appointed Supreme Court have set off tremors of hard-to-watch stories of women who have had their health put at risk by laws that exist for ideology’s sake, not healthcare.
Antis emboldened
We predicted that this would embolden the antis in the UK and we have seen the effects here too.
The most shocking development has been the politicisation of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). It has suddenly started using the outdated 1861 law to prosecute cases of women who have managed their own abortions and allowed up to 100 other women to be investigated, even in cases the doctors are saying was a miscarriage.
Anti-choice MPs on the attack
We have also seen anti-choice MPs adding their amendments to attempt to undermine the Abortion Act to Bills like the Criminal Justice Bill in Parliament earlier this year.
Liam Fox added an amendment to restrict a woman’s right to choose when there is a Down Syndrome diagnosis – a move criticised by disability campaigners uncomfortable with the singling out of one condition. Flick Drummond added an amendment that would have forced women and pregnant people back to in-person abortion appointments. This would have undone so much of the good work done by pills by post, which study after study has shown to overcome many socio- economic barriers that in-person abortion appointments pose and is recommended as best practice.
Caroline Ansell also tried the old trick of reducing the abortion time limit. This a favourite move by out-and-out anti choicers to pretend that they just want to move the goalposts a little bit, but that attacks the most vulnerable cases. Abortions past 22 weeks are rare, but they serve as a critical option for individuals facing complex situations.
Let’s not be in any doubt, we would have had our work cut out if these amendments had been voted on in the last parliament.
Read more on the attacks on abortion in Abortion Rights’ briefing document.
General election case study – being anti-abortion is not good politics
However, when put to the electorate, being anti-choice is not good for keeping your parliamentary seat and Fox, Ansell, Drummond and previous anti-choice instigator Fiona Bruce all lost their seats. This is a relief, but we can’t be complacent.
We now have a freshly elected and untested Parliament. Although the current Labour government, over promised on many political and economic issues during the election campaign, it made no mention of abortion in their manifesto. So we do need our members and supporters to write to their MPs anew and implore them to tackle the situation of women being put in the firing line of the courts for managing their own abortions, for daring to make decisions about their own bodies in difficult circumstances.
We are clear – the solution to this problem is abortion decriminalisation. The Abortion Act only did half a job in 1967 to legalise abortion, but with doctors as gatekeepers. With modern medicine, abortion is safe and mandated intervention by doctors is no longer required. We need to make the case loud and clear to the new parliament that our laws need to come into the 21st century to allow women and pregnant people to make their own choices, as well as prevent unnecessary legal cases ruining women’s lives.
I have written to all MPs to encourage them to support the aims of Abortion Rights and commit to our programme of change. You can read the letter here. We urgently need reform of healthcare, the law and services that respect diverse communities. Harassment outside abortion clinics needs to end and we need better education in schools so that when faced with difficult decisions, young people are empowered and given accurate information, not anti-choice lies peddled by shady organisations.
That’s the task for our campaign over the next few years. We will maintain our vigilance in the face of anti-choice activists – particularly at their annual jamboree in London on 7 September Please write to your MP, renew your membership of Abortion Rights, make a donation and tell your friends. We are at the cusp of having a really big impact.
The above article was originally published here by Abortion Rights.