Commentary: 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act

Articles by Ann Furedi, Ellie Lee, Polly Toynbee and Janice Turner. 

Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS, writes on the Guardian website:

‘The Archbishop of Canterbury noted in the Observer [on 21 October] that there has been a weakening of the feeling that abortion is “a last resort in cases of extreme danger or distress”. He describes what he calls the “normalisation” of abortion as a sign that the British public is losing its “moral focus”.

‘The observation is right, but the church leader’s conclusion about what it means is wrong.

‘In Britain, it is arguable that abortion is more acceptable to more people now than at any time in modern history and this is reflected in the small but persistent year on year increase in the number of women who request it. Church leaders may see abortion as a problem, but tens of thousands of women see it differently: they see it as the solution to the problem of unwanted pregnancy.

‘Abortion is an essential part of modern living. Today, we expect to be able to separate sex from procreation and to enjoy it as an expression of love, intimacy and desire. We also expect to be able to plan our families. Contraception works for most people most of the time, but it is not infallible and neither are we. Sex, by its very nature, can be passionate and impulsive, not always planned and prepared for. Family planning demands that abortion is available as a back up when contraception has failed.

‘Is this a “loss of moral focus”? I don’t think so. The prevalence of abortion could be seen as evidence of the enormous moral value we place on parenting. Perhaps, in our modern society, people feel that they should positively commit to the idea of having a baby, rather than drift into parenthood because the condom slipped.

‘The Archbishop believes that that 200,000 abortions a year “tell their own story”, implying a coarsening of society. When I visit BPAS’ clinics I make a point of reading the “stories” behind our clients’ abortions that are recorded in their medical notes. They reveal the complicated canvas of circumstances in which life-altering decisions have been made, not moral illiteracy or indifference. It is simple enough for an archbishop to say that abortion in the abstract is wrong - many women who request abortion think it’s wrong too - but for them it’s less wrong than having a baby.

‘When a woman experiences an unplanned pregnancy, she knows she must make a decision that she will live with for every day of the rest of her life. And she doesn’t need an archbishop to tell her that.’

Abortion is not immoral. Guardian Unlimited, 22 October 2007

Writing on spiked on 22 October, Ellie Lee analyses the state of the abortion law debate:

‘A set of factors has pulled the debate towards an obsession with “the science”, and actual scientific developments have been the least important of these. In so far as there have been scientific/medical developments in recent years, they have been incremental rather than dramatic. What is far more interesting is the degree of importance that social actors now attach to ‘science’: there has been a “de-moralisation” of the abortion issue. The rise of ‘science’ as the reference point in the abortion debate reflects the decline of other lines of argument ...’

Read on:

Let us decriminalise abortion altogether. spiked, 22 October 2007

Writing in the Guardian on 26 October, Polly Toynbee argues that we are still fighting ‘1967 arguments against women’s same old enemies’:

‘Tomorrow, on the 40th anniversary of the act, an anti-abortion rally will march from parliament to Westminster Cathedral for a “service of remembrance” for the 6.7m abortions since the 1967 act. This lavishly funded papal campaign is sending out DVDs of abortions to thousands, including all MPs, and posting lurid films on the internet. Images will mirror Channel 4’s disgraceful Dispatches programme, which used anti-abortion footage to show things that don’t happen in Britain. The documentary showed a US abortion at 16 weeks, purporting to demonstrate foetal pain. Not so: as the Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris says, the science shows pathways to the cortex don’t develop until after 26 weeks - and in the UK, fetuses get fatal injections first. But never mind the facts, a blitz of “walking in the womb” pictures try to blot out reason. Malevolent fictions will warn women that abortions cause mental illness and infertility or ... breast cancer. There is no end to their devious ingenuity ...’

Read on:

A woman’s supreme right over her own body and destiny is in jeopardy. Guardian, 26 October 2007

Writing in the Times (London) on 27 October 2007, Janice Turner argues that ‘babies, unborn or otherwise, should not be placed on pedestals’:

‘What needs to be addressed is how the balance of sympathy in abortion is tipping so drastically away from the woman. In part this is a consequence of a second generation that takes reproductive rights won by their grandmothers so blithely for granted. They have never heard the arguments, so why would they seek to defend them?

‘And they are growing up too in a culture of mawkish sentimentality, in which The Baby is now deified. Having lost our religion, all we believe in, invest in, is our own immediate genetic legacy...’

Read on:

What about the poor girl down at the clinic? The Times, 27 October 2007