The We Trust Women Campaign: the case for decriminalising abortion was held Tuesday 15th March at Conway Hall.
The current law states that two doctors have to authorise an abortion in the UK. We Trust Women suggested that public opinion has moved on.
The all female panel of six were campaigning for the protection and expansion of abortion rights across the UK and Northern Ireland.
The panel included Ann Furedi of bpas, Sam Smethers Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society and Dianne Munday, pioneering campaigner for the 1967 Abortion Act and former general secretary of the Abortion Law Reform Association in the 1960’s. Goretti Horgan, Alliance for Choice Northern Ireland and Naomi Philips, British Humanist Association (BHA) also joined the panel.
Abortion and Criminal Law
“The law does not currently work for women,” said Anne Furedi of bpas.
“1 in 3 women will have an abortion in their lifetime. The laws that regulate medicine do not regulate who can have abortion treatment,” she said.
Bpas is the leading provider of abortion services in the UK. Despite the high number of women who require bpas for abortion services, Furedi was adamant women need greater support for abortion treatment.
“Abortion needs to be provided in a way that we want,” she said.
Currently, abortion sits within criminal law unless two doctors have signed off the procedure.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2008 Ipswich MP Ben Gummer, Parliamentary Secretary for State of Health said: “I am personally and principally opposed to abortion.”
Diane Munday, a pioneering campaigner for the 1967 Abortion Act noted how ‘horrified’ she was that she was back in the same room 50 years on fighting for the decriminalisation of abortion.
“We are lacking behind most of Catholic Europe. Women should be able to come out and say ‘I have had an abortion and it was right for me at the time’. We need to change public perception,” she asserted.
Northern Ireland
Abortion is illegal in the Republic of Ireland unless there is extreme risk to the mother’s health.
Currently in Belfast a mother is on trial for obtaining abortion pills for her underage daughter when she became pregnant. The mother faces five years imprisonment. In a seperate case a woman stands accused of attempting to terminate her own pregnancy by taking poison and of aiding someone else to miscarry. She faces life in prison.
“In Northern Ireland things have gone backwards,” Irish activist Goretti Hogan declared.
“In 2015, 5,000 women from Northern Ireland came to the UK to get abortion pills. The laws in Northern Ireland don’t currently represent public opinion.”
Hogan remained adamant that decriminalising abortion in the UK would change the situation for Northern Ireland.
The Future
We Trust Women campaign is fighting to decriminalise abortion in the UK. If a woman wants to terminate her own pregnancy without doctor’s permission she currently faces life imprisonment.
As Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society told Westminster World: “we are suffering from a Victorian patriarchal hangover from the past that doesn’t belong in the 21st century.”
There are a number of abortion services around the UK. To learn more about these services please visit https://www.bpas.org/. For women from Northern Ireland Abortion Support Network (ASN) is a charity that provides financial assistance, accomodation and information to women forced to travel and pay privately for abortions in England. Mara Clarke is the founder.