realism or a woman's right to choose? ABORTION
on the issuc of 24 weeks. One of the most the anti-abortionists and to There has already been pro-choice movement's atti- abortion on demand up to 12 weeks, but including a reduc- Women must reject any such argument any situation is the best to decide whether We must also reject any argument that divides women, saying that the rights of a few women to late abortions should be who need early ones. Any reduction of the time-limit will Icad to pressure for further The victory conference of FAB took up a number of proposals around an offensive important was to put together a pro- choice charter which can be used to cam- paign for a woman's right to choose and to fight against the concessions that the new realists in the labour movement seem bigots and those who favour choice: batt- choice movement, of the viability argu- ment occurs at the very time that foetal 'rights' are again up for discussion, this time in the form of legislation to be intro- duced in the next parhamentary session concerning the Warnock report. This re- port proposes an end to experiments on foctuses after fourteen days — thus impli- citly advocating legal rights for foetuses. The next step in the cam- paign has to be to force the labour movement into a clear position of support for a wo- man's right to choose. This is necessary both to prepare for possible future attacks from ward off the danger of new some discussion over what the tude would be so a bill giving which accepts that abortion is a matter for criminal law, The woman concerned in sacrificed to the nceds of many women or not to continue with a pregnancy. realist compromises. preservation act, for a limit at 28 weeks or tioninthe time-limit to 24 weeks. willing to make on our behalf• reductions and restrictions. The connection is obvious. right to choose, under any circumstances and at any point in the pregnancy. A campaigner lays a carnation outside St. Thomas hospital at a FAB rally before the second reading of Alton's bill les in which they will not be allowed to sit Viability is a fake debate, The current viability. Ar present, doctors make their A 24 week bill would lif the decision out of the hands of doctors — one reason why Putting the time-limit into the law al- lows it to be continually lowered as science advances — a recipe for the continual The move to link viability with women's abortion rights is extremely dangerous, implying that immediately a foetus is theoretically capablc of living indepen- dently of its mother, she loses all rights The whole issue of abortion needs to be lifted out of criminal law: Women must have an unconditional right to choose, under any circumstances, at any point in The increasing acceptance, by the pro- One of the arguments used is that such a compromise is based on the scientifically objective idea of 'viability'; that is, the stage at which a foctus becomes able to be law already allows, through the infant life many doctors are opposed to a change. kept alive outside the woman's body. judgement on the basis of viability. reduction of the time-limit. over her own body. the pregnancy. We should celebrate the first victory of ing is the assertion of the new realists that Even erstwhile champions of a woman's quate compromise by those defeatists who THE DeFEAT of the Alton bill in parlia- ment represents a fragile victory for It was based on a history of mass Campaign and on the work of the Fight abortion act, organising demonstrations the unions on a controversial social issue the women's movement in the face of the ront the new situation opened up by Al- ton's unsuccessful bill, Particularly worry- there is a general consensus around a right to choose have found themselves putting their name to amendments which Labour MP Joan Ruddock has called for a parlamentary committee to consider the issue of abortion and thereby come up: Twenty-four weeks is seen as an ade- fear repeated outright battles between the campaigning by the National Abortion Alton's Bill (FAB) campaign, which at- tempted to lead a mass, labour movement- oriented campaign in defence of the 1967 recent wave of' attacks on women's rights. But we should also be prepared to cont- would lower the time-limit to 24 weeks. SOCIALST OUTLOOK nD 8 July/Seplember: 1988 In 1979 the TUC called a 60,000-strong demonstration against John Corrie's anti- had changed. The labour realism has been used syste- difficult to mobilise the base of abortion bill. By 1988, things movement today is dominated by the idca that you camot stand and fight, and win. New matically to demobilise the struggles of the working class in defence of jobs and condi- tions. The influence of new realism has made it extremcly women and the working class. such as abortion time-limits. time-limitof24 weeks. of up to 20,000 people. with a 24 week limit. Julio Cichort
them out with a decree fixing wages at day, and labourers 1V2d. Iwe assume that wages had risen sharply. Employers were annoyed at this manifestation of market forces so the government decided to help Roughly speaking, skilled workers were not to receive more than about 4d or 5d a these rates prevailed in 1380 (and the statute was not particularly successful in kceping wages down) we can easily cal- culate that a skilled worker was being only was this tax fairer than the commun- ity charge, it was a much lighter burden In 1380 the situation in France became ment for help. The army in France had not been paid for months. There was rebellion in Ireland and trouble on the Scottish border. A revolution in Flanders had dis- expected to contribute a single day's pay rupted the vital wool trade. French galleys Apart from rebellion in Ireland, the present government can offer none of these sound and successful the economy is, and how peacefully we live under the nuclear excuses. On the contrary, we are told how The collection of poll tax registration forms is currently causing the authorities in Scotland a certain worse. The government begged amount of difficulty. In a light-hearted trip through history CRAIG BINNS argues that, for the and a labourer about three days" were raiding English ports. pre-plague levels. Poll tax