ON October 27 1967 legislation was passed that made abortion legal under certain circumstances in this country.
As we celebrate these years we take this opportunity to look at the individuals, mainly women, and the social forces at work that made it possible to change the law.
Stella Browne was one of the earliest campaigners for abortion to be seen as a right and not just an operation that could be performed for the sake of a woman's health. Stella made the first call for the law to be changed.
In The Malthusian in March 1915 she put forward a number of reasons for this liberalisation. She argued that as there was no totally reliable method of contraception available, women should be able to control their fertility. The education of young people in sexual matters was only just beginning and it was unfair to penalise ignorance. She stated that abortions were happening and that they were in the hands of untrained and unskilled individuals and often permanently injured the women.
Stella argued that prejudice against abortion was not due to medical science but was based on Christian canon law which stated that at the time of conception there was a right of baptism. Shesaid that thinking people would wonder why embryonic life alone should be considered sacred. She referred to the war and suggested tha ur world should be made fit for clidren to raised.
In 'Some Problems of Sex', written in 1916. she argued that the essential point of birth control was to establish the right of women not to have children.
Justice McCardie had also become convinced that the 1861 Abortion Act was out of touch with the realities of life and on November 30 1931, he publicly attacked the law.
Two women came before him and pleaded guilty to aborting themselves. He could have sent them to prison for life, instead he just bound them over. In his summing up he said I express the view clearly that in my opinion the law in regard to illegal operations should be substantially amended. It is out of keeping with the conditions that prevail in the world around us'.
His attitudes were to have an impact on some doctors who then began a debate in the British Medical Association for there to be a change carried out under the same condiciens as any other surgical operation. It further asks that women now suffering from imprisonment for breaking these antiquated laws be amnestied."
Euphoric
Stella Browne was euphoric about the success of the resolution and the rejection of the amendment that wanted to delete the call for amnesty for women in prison. In 1935 Labour Party women also supported the cause of changing the laws in relation to abortion.
In 1936, Stella Browne, Janet Chance and Alice jenkins were amongst those wi? Abortion Law Keira, Shortly after they We lice Du Dora Russell, who togetner with Bertram, had formed the Workers Birth Control Group. Sorne of its members were hesitant about supThe battles that we have fought to defend this abortion act have been many, and there have been some set backs on the way. However the Act is still there, and we cannot under estimate the role of the National Abortion Campaign, and the tens of thousands of women and men who have been prepared over the years to take to the streets to defend the Act.
There is still much to do, so that it is women who decide when, if and how they will have children. We must step up the argument that it should not take the signature of two doctors for women to have en abortion.
We need to campaign for legislaton that really does gave women choice. At the same time we have to oppose the cuts in the health service which hit abortion provision particularly hard.
Socialist Outloo