'Real Reason' for delay in the HFE Bill revealed

The Sunday Telegraph (yes, I know) claims that the HFE Bill has been delayed to the Autumn not because of the Glasgow-East by-election, but rather because Emily Thornberry MP, supported by Harriet Harman, wants to table an amendment to extend abortion rights to Northern Ireland. Considering assurances were given by the Northern Ireland Secretary that this would not happen around the time of the 42 days vote, relations in Cabinet are said to have further deteriorated. Read about the messy politics here

Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but I shall ask my Westminster spies tomorrow. I love that pro-choice MPs are finally on the offensive and I say bring on the summer campaign!

The Women's Hour over at Radio 4 has been discussing the issue this morning, which you can access here. Although I warn you, you will have to listen to Nadine Dorries MP.

Another shambolic abortion article

I am boycotting weekend newspapers because they are literally eating into my social life, but this morning this little gem from the Observer was waiting in my inbox. It's your standard 'I became pregnant and am now questioning my pro-choice stance so I'm going to go to the American South and talk to some nutters for a cheap Channel 4 TV show' waste of time. Though she ultimately retains her pro-choice stance there are so many dodgy arguments and rhetorical devices in this piece - it's an utter shambles. Still framing the debate in terms of birth/death (what the hell has her grandma dying got to do with abortion?) rather than women's reproductive rights and bodily integrity. Blah!

Dodgiest parts below:

Throughout my twenties and the better part of my thirties, I did everything that was required for me not to have a child (other than, you know, not having sex). I wasn't always safe - I've necked morning-after pills like vitamin tablets - but I was lucky enough not to end up in a situation where I was pregnant and didn't want to be.

Unhelpful!

And I'm a feminist. I have more than one Andrea Dworkin book and I'm not ashamed of that.

A copy of Andrea Dworkin is not a definitive feminist ID

My questions weren't being answered in the UK, where abortion isn't really talked about. So I decided to go to America, where abortion is a hot, divisive and political topic.

Err, I think a number of recent UK Ten Minute Rule Bills might suggest otherwise .....

I hung out with Roy outside the clinic as he confronted young, mostly black, women coming in for a termination and tried to persuade them to turn back. It wasn't a comfortable morning. 'Shame on you, coming in here with a cross around your neck!' Roy shouted at one poor girl. 'Are you going to nail your baby to the cross?' Despite his appalling hectoring, I quite liked Roy.

Yeah, he sounds like a really nice guy ...

Watch the madness on More4 this Wednesday 10.30pm.

Abortion Rights event

I will definitely be going to this. There's a lot of talk on the London Feminist Network about how this is the same day as a socialist feminism 'fightback' event. But for me this is a no-brainer ....

Abortion Rights Event (same day at Capital Woman)

Join us to launch the campaign for a modern abortion law
Saturday 3rd March

ASSEMBLE at 12.30 for a public launch event and press photo opportunity to spell out our message on the green outside the QEII Conference Centre, in front of the Houses of Parliament
QEII Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary Westminster, London SW1

Please download the campaign flyer here and distribute widely to help mobilise for this extraordinary event.

It's time the pro-choice majority was heard!

40 years after the 1967 Abortion Act, it is time to celebrate the social, economic and educational advances that reproductive rights have allowed women, and the end to back-street abortion. Yet 40 years on, women in the UK still don’t have the right to make their own abortion decisions. Women are obstructed and delayed and current rights are repeatedly challenged. In this 40th anniversary year, Abortion Rights is coordinating a major push for a modern law. We are joined by MPs, Peers, doctors, nurses, sexual health organisations, trade unions, students and pro-choice supporters in calling for a law in line with majority public opinion.

It is time for:

• women, not doctors, to make the abortion decision in the first three months
• an end to unacceptable delays in service provision

• an end to attacks on current rights

Be there and make a difference!

Blog for Choice

Today is the thirty-fourth anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, as well as the second annual Blog For Choice event. So, why am I pro-choice?

I came very late to the whole abortion debate, basically because I wasn't very politically active as an undergrad and my feminist training was in IR, social policy and economics. So I was quite ignorant of the exact laws and debates, although I always knew I was pro-choice. I had always presumed that if I needed to get an abortion then I just would. I would just walk into a sexual health clinic and say that I had decided that I wanted one and then, presumably, I would have one. It would be a pain but I would be fine. I didn't believe then, and I don't believe now, that having children is my main purpose in life, so I would get on with things I did want to do.

So fair to say, I was very surprised to find out that in the UK I would need to convince two doctors that my (mental or physical) health would be worse if I had a child than if I had an abortion. That basically, in terms of UK abortion law, I did not have the right to make a decision about my own body, but that this right could be extended to (mostly male) medical practitioners. Shocked, I thought things might have been different back home in Australia, but no, the situation is the same there and what little rights we have are constantly under threat by an anti-woman Catholic health minister.

Current abortion law is disgusting and infantilizing on so many levels, but I am primarily pro-choice because I believe bodily integrity, the right to make decisions about one's own body, is a fundamental human right; and that anything less than abortion on demand is therefore unacceptable. Yes, I said abortion on 'demand' rather than 'request', because I certainly don't 'request' any other basic human rights. I don't think we should shy away from using strong language in feminism either!

So on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade I'd just like to thank all those feminists before me who got us this far, and pledge that in the future I will do my best to bring things forward.

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There is also a fab post about blogging for choice on Alternet by Feministing's Jessica Valenti. Just go here