WHY WOMEN DONT CONTROL THEIR OWN FERTILITY There are many different explanations as to exactly how women came to be subordinated but most Marxists agree that women's oppression has not always existed, that it is rooted In the social and economic organisation of society and that it is not a 'natural' product of women's biology. It arose historically with the production of a surplus of goods over what was required for minimal survival. This surplus was controlled by a ruling class which found it necessary to take control of the female body. The property of the ruling class had to be passed on to the next generation. If women had the freedom not to reproduce, or to reproduce with any man they desired, this ruling class would not an any of are a be able to ensure its own off-spring inherited the accumulated wealth and goods. Because ruling class men could not reproduce themselves they had to ensure a structure in society that gave them control over reproduction. the patrlarchal family which institutionalised the subordination of women. This patrlarchal order of society is reflected in laws on the family and control of women's fertility. The state • exercises control over women, and other oppressed groups through combination of coercion and ideological pressure. The state either completely outlaws abortion or only makes it available under certain conditions. No matter how liberal these conditions may be they still deny women the right to choose if and when to have an abortion. No capitalist government has ever granted abortion as a right for women.
In the semi-colonial world population control programmes restrict women's right to have children, through forced sterilisation, or use women as guinea-pigs for new contraceptive techniques such as depro-provera. Black and immigrant women in Western Europe and the USA are also subject to racist policies on abortion, sterilisation being forced upon them by some doctors when they decide to terminate a pregnancy.
The capitalist state cannot allow women to control their fertility because it would weaken the hold of the family systen. The family system is based on the idea that women's biology makes them inferior. If women won control over their own bodies it would become clear that is only the present structure of society that creates that inferiority. Freedom from repeated and unwanted pregnancies would remove one of the main explanantions used by the ruling class for women's inferior status and low pay. The state cannot give women the freedom to choose because it
would shake the very foundation of the class society in which we live.
THE STRUGGLE FOR ABORTION RIGHTS IN BRITAIN Women did not lose control over their bodies overnight. Indeed they have consistently fought the church and the state for this right. As far back as the fourteenth century women who performed abortions were burnt at the stake as witches. Legislation was introduced in 1801 to make abortion a statutory offence. Another law, passed in 1861 went further and made attempting to procure an abortion unlawful' and punishable by life imprisonment. At this time the only contraception avallable was abstention, withdrawal or methods like the injection of alum and water. In 1882 a dutch doctor developed the Mesinga diaphragm but working class women found this hard to obtain. Back street abortions were reaching epidemic proportions.
Annie Besant was charged with producing literature when she wrote a sixpenny pamphlet almed at giving working class women information about birth control. At first many in the labour movement feared birth control, associating it with moral restraint and forced population control. But women's organisations within the labour movement continued to press for the legalisation of abortion.
By the early twentieth century Marie Stopes was making contraception avallable to working class women and the sheath was being sold widely. When the Ministry of Health refused to allow maternity centres to give advice on birth control In 1923 Labour Party women passed a motion of protest. By 1930 the Ministry of Health had been freed to iift the ban.
By 1929 attention was switching to abortion. An Act of Parliament protected those performing abortions when the life of the woman was in danger. It also introduced the concept of 'viability' (the point at which the fetus could live independently of the woman). It was set at 28 weeks.
In 1937 the Government set up the Birkett Committee. evidence was given to • this committee, particularly of the high number of back street abortions performed and the deaths that resulted from them. It was estimated that between 110,000 and 150,000 Illegal abortions were performed annually. Four hundred and ten women are known to have died from them in 1937.
The Birkett Committee proposed legal changes but these were not introduced 'because of the advent of war'.
After the war, with the establishment of the NHS, and the growing practise of 'therapeutic abortions' (le ones performed because of mother's health) more women were able to obtain abortions. The vast majority of these were still performed in the private sector.
Several attempts were made to reform the law by means of private members bills. These were unsuccessful, until in 1966 David Steel introduced the bill that was to become the 1967 Abortion Act. This was at a time when the medical profession was beglnning to be concerned about the effects that thalidomide was having on the fetuses of the women to whom it was prescribed.
Since 1967 the Act has been under constant attack from private members' bills, the best known of which were the James White BIll In 1975, the Benyon BIll In 1977, the Corrie BIll in 1979. Now in 1987188 we are faced with the Alton Bill. The anti-abortionists have learned from previous parliamentary debacles. David Alton has a one-line amendment reducing abortion to 18 weeks. By focussing on the time limit question he has sought what he thinks is the weakest spot in the shield of the pro-choice movement. ABORTION DUTCH GONEN SuRE AGATNST CORRIE National Abortion Campaign
WHY THERE SHOULD BE NO TIME LIMITS Women no longer see motherhood as elther their inevitable fate, or their main Identity, although a majority of women expect to have children at some time. Nowadays women expect their children to survive childhood ‹in the west at least) and to have access to contraception and legal abortion. In other words, to be able to choose if and when to have children.
When motherhood is thrust upon them, because of unplanned pregnancy, they still expect to exercise choice. If they decide they do not wish to continue with the pregnancy, that is their reason for seeking abortion. It is only our restrictive laws which compel them to seek out two doctors, who in turn have to find 'grounds' for granting an abortion. It is this, compounded by lack of facilities particularly affecting poorer women, which restricts choice.
Women have many reasons for choosing not to continue with a pregnancy which cannot be neatly categorised by man-made legal 'grounds'. Whilst some women know, even before they get pregnant, that they would choose abortion - perhaps because they never want children, or have completed their family - for others the decision may not come until some way into their pregnancy. The response to the Alton Bill shows that many people do not understand that If a choice cannot be made at any stage in a pregnancy, then the concept of choice cannot be said to exist at all.
Some of the situations which lead to late abortions could easily be changed, if the political will was there - delays in the health service, lack of facilities, obstructive doctors. Some could probably be Improved with more research, such as tests for fetal abnormality. Other, more profound changes in society affecting the totallty of women's lives, would mean that some abortions would not even be considered. These changes would include free 24 hour a day childcare, improvements in social security, better facilities for those with disabilities.
But even under the best possible circumstances, some late abortions will still be sought by women, including at a time when the fetus 1s. Ilkely to be viable, especlally using modern technology. Those who, whilst generally supportive, seek to reduce time limits, do so on the grounds of viability. Given the possibllity, women would always choose to have an early rather than a late abortion. Those who, at a late stage, are : st111 seeking an abortion, are therefore likely to be the most determined, with the strongest reasons for having an abortion.
Whatever a wonan's reasons, she should not be denied a choice on abortion simply because the fetus is at a stage where it could possibly be viable. The reality Is that It is still totally dependent on her, inside her, affecting her life here and now and for the forseeable future.
"Vlability" is a moveable concept, not because the rate of development of the fetus has changed, but according to technology, or even to geography - many areas do not have the necessary facilitles to save very early bables. To argue that abortion is allowable only until "viability" is reached is to concede there are certain acceptable grounds for abortion and limits on women's choice, that women cannot be trusted to make their own decision. To accept the viability argument does not merely open the door to continuing restrictions, as viability gets earlier through the use of technology, but It also, and more importantly, accepts that some women's decsions are inherently less valid than others. The whole concept of the '67 Act was based on the idea that women are unable to make valid decísions for themselves, and antlabortionists carry this Idea further by arguing that women cannot make decisions • for the "unborn child". To accept restrictions is to accept that argument in some degree. In fact, given the greater dangers of late abortions and the increasing unpleasantness of the operation itself, women seeking late abortions are likely to have the most valid reasons of all. Is this to argue for "abortion to term"? In fact, termination of pregnancy after 28 weeks already occurrs where the fetus is dlagnosed as dead or totally unvlable. For the vast majority of women, once they feel the baby move, they begin to establish a relationship with It, to think of it as a baby, and this is why most desperate would still seek an abortion at this stage. At the present time, when many women having late abortions have sought them at an earlier stage in their pregnancy, they have never allowed themselves to develop this relationship. For other women, whose situation changes during the pregnancy, the decision is that much harder. The anti-abortionists' argument seems to suggest that, once there was no time limit, women would gladly seek late abortions. This is of course not true at all. A woman's reasons and needs for an abortion do not become Important as the weeks go by - they are as valld after 20 weeks as they were before. To deny a woman choice on abortion is to deny her autonomy and control over her own life.
Choice for women is not divisible. No-one can judge on another woman's behalf. To restrict abortion at any stage for any woman is to restrict choice for all women.
WHY ABORTION IS BOTH A WOMAN'S ISSUE AND A CLASS ISSUE Abortion 1s not exclusively a woman's issue. The struggle for abortion rights raises many questions that concern the working class as & whole: the right of the state to control women's bodies; the right of poor women to have safe abortions; the separation of church and state; the nature of imperialist population control programmes.
The working class as a whole has a class interest in the avallability of free, safe abortion and contraception. Women cannot work if they are continually subjected to unwanted are solely responsible for their family's survival. But the consciousness of the working class on the question of abortion rights often logs behind what is objectively necessary. It is women whose lives are most directly affected by abortion being criminalised. It is women who suffer because of lack of control over their own sexuality and fertility. It is women who are left holding the baby.
Women have the most to gain and most to lose from the struggle for abortion rights. It is they who must lead the campaign. Abortion campaigns must Involve men and women but women only activities are not divisive. They strengthen the self-confidence and combativity of women. They allow women to express how they feel about what & predominantly male parliament is doing to restrict their rights. Women's leadership is also vital to reverse the situation in normal political life and allow women to develop their potential as leaders. Women are undoubtedly the best speakers, the best agitators on abortion rights. Women can why control over fertility is fundamental to their exeedom. Win this way the abortion rights movement contributes to building the women's movement.
The Alton Bill is an attack on all women's right to abortion. If 1 passed it would criminalise any abortion after 18 weeks. Rich women would be able to go abroad more easily than working class 1 women. But all women who want to fight must be drawn into this campalgn. The labour movement is the force that must be mobilised to defeat the Alton Bill but the argument wIll only be won If wonen go into the factorles and the streets and argue the case against Alton.