The Guardian is reporting this morning that the government has decided to change the regulations surrounding abortion, before a vote is held in the Commons on an amendment presented by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries and Labour MP Frank Field on this very subject. The changes will see abortion providers stripped of their role in counselling women seeking an abortion, instead requiring independent bodies to fulfill this role - many of whom are anti-choice organisations. 

I am appalled that there are those in government, indeed in Parliament, who believe that in the middle of a growing economic storm, we need to be spending public time and money on minimising a woman’s right to choose. Whilst abortion is a weighty decision for individuals to take, it is ultimately just that - a decision for a mother to make, with the advice of trained medical professionals. It is not the job of the state to impose itself inside the uterus of every woman from Lands End to Lerwick. That there are far more urgent issues at hand here merely compounds the insult.

For me, there can be no question. It is every woman’s right to choose whether she feels that it is necessary for her to have an abortion. In cases of rape, incest or medical complication, certainly, there is no room for moralising organisations who wish to control her uterus and life from here on in. 

This does not for one moment, however, mean that I think people should be forced to have abortions, that I condone murder or the thousand other things that pro-choice activists in the US are accused of by their anti-choice opponents. Abortions happen whether they are legal or not; I want women to be able to choose to have this difficult and often traumatic procedure in a clean, safe environment with trained medical professionals and the option of counselling from organisations who believe that the difficulties of the individual should not be disregarded in the name of their own personal belief structure.

Anyone who believes that tightening the laws around abortion, or even banning it, would prevent it from happening should watch the beginning of this video; an extract from Ken Loach’s play Up The Junction. Before abortion was legalised in this country, the estimate is that there were at least 52,000 abortions every year. Wider studies show that prohibiting abortion, or restricting legal access, has no significant impact on the number. Legalising abortion transferred this procedure from dark and dangerous back streets to clean and safe clinics. As the above New York Times article indicates, WHO research shows that around 67,000 women die each year from having unsafe abortions.

There are simply too many vulnerable women who cannot afford a child, yet were raped; who’ve been abused systematically by family members; who’ve had to sell their bodies to make ends meet; whose condom split; whose partner beat them and now has left them - too many vulnerable women who will suffer if we roll the state forwards in this area. We don’t have the money to do much for them at the moment; the least we can do is ensure their right to choose is protected and can be carried out in the fairest, cleanest way possible. The trauma of abortion is enough without the guilt of another being forced upon you in the name of ‘counselling’. 

It is not just that a Liberal MP - David Steel - was the one who got the ban on abortion lifted back in the 1960s. It’s not just that those who lead these campaigns are taking a page from the politics of the US, a politics that has led to that country drifting rudderless for years now. It’s not just that there are bigger issues for government to be addressing. It’s that we have no place here, between the doctor and the mother or inside the uterus. I would urge truly progressive politicians of every stripe to unite to defeat this backwards stumble by the government, now, before women who need help find doors slammed in their faces.