Event - Abortion: the hard arguments

Ann Furedi and Professor John Wyatt debate at the UK Battle of Ideas festival in London, 1 November 2008. 

Abortion was once a debate with two clear sides. The anti-abortion lobby condemned it as murder, while the pro-choice lobby argued that access to abortion was crucial to women’s equality. But in recent years, the abortion issue has been emptied out of both its political and moral content. Those opposed to abortion often refuse to condemn abortion outright, focusing instead on the problems of the number of abortions, late abortions, and disputed evidence about the negative impact of abortion on women’s physical and emotional health. The pro-choice lobby has also been criticised for ‘hiding behind the science’, focusing its energies on countering the anti-abortionists’ claims and evading the presentation of a positive case why women need access to abortion as early as possible and as late as necessary.

Science can and should inform the medical practice of abortion, but it can never tell us whether abortion is right in principle. It is time to put the politics and morality back into the abortion debate, through tackling the hard arguments. When does life begin? How far should we take ‘a woman’s right to choose’? What kind of legislation on abortion should we expect in a civilised society?

Speakers:

Ann Furedi - chief executive, British Pregnancy Advisory Service
Professor John Wyatt - professor of ethics & perinatology, University College London

For more information about the debate ‘Abortion: the hard arguments’, see here.

The Battle of Ideas is a two-day festival of social, political and cultural discussion taking place in London, 1 & 2 November 2008. Tickets are on sale now.