twenty years of the women's movement to The 1967 abortion act was a fight for, a woman's right to its coming into effect, some
that the struggle for a woman's body involves much more than control her own fertility. The brought the issue to the fore, right of control over her own LEONORA LLOYD argues Alton bill and the campaign defending the '67 act. Like against it have once more
other legislative advances of the homosexuality, it was seriously sixties, such as on flawed.
Abortion: twenty ye The implementation of the '67 act depended on a medical establishment, SOCIALST OUTLOOK to 2 Nosebai Decentini 10A7 recendy, abortion Aberalisation rarely come ins been pressure from medical personnel women's health who have been in the women s bryanisations took op she issue 1n this country, thes never succeeded in taking Il into the broader labour movement I was not until already-secured right were under parcar that women became involved on the This explains why the act took the form ir did. It did not repeal the section of the 1861 person act making ahorinn illegal It cicarod exceptions to that act. leaving the decision in the hands of not The doctors had to give "grounds" lor and these cellectel what were seen a the major porblems Lon- renting women secking thems First came health and aborton was allowed when ir wipild be moir dangerons to continue the pergnancy Whar happened, in fact. was thar with the tremendoos increase in legal abortion, and with the development of new rechniques, doctors increased their skills to the point where abortion was amost always gong to be safer than contnuing a pregnan- Anti-abortionist ananage both to serk to about us the result of popular agitation — it and others concerned shout thr toll on foredont of change Albough working class issue in Targe numben one but two. doctors to be the day that evanecologists deared die ward of all those who could be sent hone in anticipatine of the flood of those who dir-in- themselves ni went amund the comer to the neighbourhood abortionisr Improved rear- abortion dropped belore 1968, even in chese cases. Death rates in countries like Sweden would still be a considerable mumber of One speaker estimated that only 25:000 of the supposed 100,000 would be carried outo buspital post legalisation, Chief amongst the reasons titudes of doctors and nurses. He also about salety as tire major reason lor control It should be rememberer thar until Carly ment df sepsis meant thar deaths from illegal The FPA conference believed that there illegal abortions under any change in she law for ls pessimus was the anti-abortion at- esumared thar the chances of dying from an abortion were twice those of dying from *the existence of NAC. born of the women's movement. changed the terms of the childbirth. Another speaker saw that her could covisege. dropped fascer smil prosecution. As the moral clinate changed. were done, often In April 1966 the Family Plaining for legal abortion. It was estimated that there based on surveys, numbers of women who died or suffered other bad ellecto, and police In fact, numbers of deaths had been drop- ping steadily, for a varicty of rcasons. Tr had been pussible for some time to get legal abor- tion in 1938 on a fourteen year old victim of multiple rape and the subsequent court case. derided that 'danger to life" included severe mental and physical harm to the woman. tions in good faith, usually after getting the opinions of rwo paychiatrists, were safe from more abortions were perlored in this way. -D and Cs' (scraping the wumb, usually to relieve menstrual pro- blems) became a euphemist under which privately, Other wornen escaped to the more such as Sweden and Switzerland, for abortions, but this was only For the poor, Friday, pay day, conrinued NHS DAVID STEEL'S bill, introduced in 1906, roccived the royal assent on October 27 1067, coming into effect six months later. The delay was in order to give the NH& more time to gear up for the expected demand for Association's conterence on abortion totally underestimated the demand there would be were some 80,000-100,000 illegal abortions; rions. A Doctor Boume performed an abor This meant that doctors performing abor abortions, singularly failed to do. semi-legal abortions liberal countries. In addition, for the wealthy, newly
the anti-abortionists as part ot their lead-up to the James White hill in February 1975, shmood that those supporring abortion on demand (thirteen percent) were greater than those who opposed it entirely (rine per cent). with the majority supporting abortion in a wide variety of cases (with handicap the horn of the women's movement, changed rhe terms of the debate, because for the Arst nome the issue was taken squardly into the Jaboor atter aton adopted act policy or a woman's rigle to cHoose, culminanne in the TUC accepting 1977. when they were written inco a revised version of de caims for highest, is ir still remains, dongside rape). The existence of NAC. Union after Union abortion rights in movchicat pm-'67
campaign urganised by Labour Ml James White. By rhe time of the William Benvon bill, in 1976. NAC's aims hud gone far becond the 67 act, us its short- comings became clear. An umbeelia, united set up. NAC was against a bill proposed by Glasgow therefore walf first mass campaign women at work" The from!
13 specifically to figlic the Benyon bill, and dus tactic was repeated, with even greater suc- Recently, NAC has been instrumental in set- ting up the campaign to fight the fatest attack What benelics has the act brought women! Why are we working so hard to defrad such By the twentieth anniversary of the act ahortion With few deaths and a low tute of main for Women have above all gained from being The insistence that we have the right of control niver our own For young women, the availability of Can now make a chuice between abortion. or Tiegal abortion is not the same thing as some three million women will have had an bodies has had repercussions for those fighting for freedom to express their awn sexuality and for women wanting more con Far fewer 'shutgun marriagesor "seven month babies" now occur. Women no longer feel compelled to marry because they are pregnant. They sexual quality or freedum for women. Bur it is a necessary prerequisite. Women de not use abortion as a form of cobtraception and the increased use of contraception does nor prevent abortion, far from it. Once women accept the idea that they can control their down, they are lar readier to turn to abortion It is this feeling of wanting to maintain control that is behind the massive responses Anti- cess, with the campaign against Corrie Jertility, if their contraception lets chem from women each time the right to abortion is attacked What has become taken for abortionists know that women will not stop - the question is, will those abortions be safe and legal, or will they be illegal? Women know that legal abortion a flawed acl against chis latest arrack? trol over the process of giving birth. threatened illness, this represents a buge abortion has had most iffect. keeping the baby or adoption. able tu plan their lives. " is worth fighring for becomes having abortions women's health Alton's bill as a back up. granted *wealthy women escaped to more very far from the pro-1967 days when a woman with an unwanted pregnancy was viewed as mentally unable to cope with her situation Certainly that is cnough to make As well as these inherent flaws, the act, as wide open for amendment and attacks. There had been a Jot of argument during irs passage, for exam- ple, about how seriously ill the woman had to be and how high the risk of malformation of the fetus. These sort of debates were repeared cach time an attempt was made to amend the bill. Even more important, there health pure motives, soon came into being, the lat- Until June 1975, when the first National Abortion Campaign (NAC) demonstration was held, public discossion of abortion was April 27. 1968 the hospitals soon became overwheimed. Charities, run by those who had worked for years to get the act, and private clinics, run by those with rather less auchorities to be obliged to provide facilities: very low key. Exen so, a poll conducted by liberal countries for abortions' ter especially being a targer of media abuse. ears since the '67 act Anaew Misera Rai ent whose starting point was not always the interests and wishes of women provision in the act for with history has shown. was no provision anyone depressed! was no magnity the dangers of legal abortion, and to Other grounds for abortion include the tion after rape, perhaps because it was" argue that this clause allows abortion on de- mand. especially when coupled with the re- quirement in the act for the doctor to cake in- to account the present and foreseeable condi- rions of the woman — the well-known 60- any other children the mother may bave now or in the burden die mother), or where there is a risk of the child boing born handicapped The grounds do nor, for cxample, specify abor- assumed that pregnancy in thar situation would affect the woman's mental health enough to be covered already: but whar of Lie case of the woman who is strong cnough to cope with the rape, but still does nor wanr nalistic — women who needed abortione portant decisions io their own interests, pro- ved by the fact that they had managed to get lemscives' prognant in the first place lt is in practice, the most often cited ground is the mental health most used diagnosis We have: not anoved dicapped and another child would over- of the wotan, with "depression' the single Overall, the act turned out to be pater future (Jor example, where a child is han were scen as cssencially unable to make m SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 4 November/December 1087 current or loresceable elfect on perhaps significant that, ro carry a tapist's child? called social Clause'
HEALTH