By Louise Timlin
I’ve never had an abortion but I certainly took it for granted that I could if I needed or wanted to. I have a friend who was denied the choice when her foetus was diagnosed with a condition that was incompatible with life.
She lived in Ireland.
She had to live for months with people asking her excitedly when she was due.
My mother’s first baby died of the same condition, a few hours after birth.
This was in the 1960’s. It was thought best to take the baby away and my mother never got to hold her.
I remember watching a documentary describing this practice with my mother, decades later. I’m crying now remembering her pain.
Medical technology did not exist at the time to give my mother a choice over her body and the pregnancy.
That it exists now and yet women around the world are still being denied the right to make decisions on what happens to their body is completely unacceptable.
Many are appalled at the recent decision in the US to overturn “Roe vs Wade”, granting the power for states to essentially enforce pregnancy on women. Yet the examples often used in pro-choice arguments are like that of my friend, or women and girls who are victims of rape or incest. However access to abortion, for any reason, is a human right, because of the concept of bodily autonomy.
Bodily autonomy gives individuals ownership over their bodies, including the right to access – or say no to – medical procedures.
Forcing someone to carry on an unwanted pregnancy, or forcing them to undergo an unsafe abortion by denying them the legal right to safe and accessible procedures is a violation of their human rights.
We think that what has happened in America couldn’t happen here. But many people are unaware of how abortion is regulated in Great Britain.
Abortion is still in criminal law in England, Scotland and Wales, thanks to legislation passed in 1861 – before women even had the right to vote.
Current law only allows women to access abortion under specific conditions – including needing the permission of two doctors, who are allowed to object if their personal beliefs are anti-choice. This should highlight just how tenuous abortion access is here, and why the government urgently needs to embedd it into healthcare and remove it from criminal law alltogether.
Ending a pregnancy without permission could result in life imprisonment.
It’s been reported recently that at least 17 women have been investigated by police in the last eight years in England and Wales for miscarriages and still-births, including a 15-year-old girl.
At a time when less than 2% of rape cases result in a suspect being charged, it’s shocking that this is where the police and criminal justice system focus their resources.
Abortions are healthcare and the government has the power to remove them from criminal law for good. But is this likely? Their track record is not looking good.
In 2019, 99 MPs, the vast majority Conservative, voted to keep abortion illegal in Northern Ireland. I was surprised to see that our very own Sir John Redwood was not on that list so I checked the list of MPs who voted in support of the bill. He wasn’t on that list either.
The vast majoirty of the Conservative leadership candidates have a dismal voting record on abortion rights, with current favourite Rishi Sunak abstaining from every single vote on abortion rights – as though the fundamental rights of women aren’t his concern.
The Women’s Equality Party is calling for abortion to be fully decriminalised to ensure that women are in control of their own bodies.
On 6th July Women’s Equality Party activists flooded Downing Street with calls to decriminalise abortion. Thousands of people gathered on 9th July to demand that abortion is deciminalised and accessible to everyone who needs one in Britain.
Yet, as I wrote in my last column, the government is too distracted by in-fighting and power grabbing to actually govern our country.
Worse still, they have been actively dismantling or exiting all of the institutions that hold them accountable and force them to uphold our human rights. These are dark times indeed.
There is no debate to be had on the provision of safe, accesible abortion. It is healthcare. Denying access to abortion only bans safe abortions, placing thousands of women’s lives at risk.
Not everyone will feel comfortable with the idea of abortion being decriminalised, but the right to bodily autonomy means that no one – including the state – should enforce pregancy on anyone.
It’s that simple.
Louise Timlin is the leader of Women’s Equality Party, Reading and Wokingham
