I don’t like talking about abortion and so rarely do. I have never written about it before. I am uncomfortable doing so here.
It feels trite even to rehearse some of the debate. Can you simultaneously believe in a woman’s right to autonomy over her body and a baby’s right to life? Can you decide never to have an abortion, but also believe other women should be able to? Is an abortion at eight weeks different to an abortion at eight months? If pushed, I’d probably say that the answer to all of these questions is yes.
Labour’s Stella Creasy is campaigning to fully decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. ‘We can stop locking up women and instead lock in our human right to choose,’ she argued this week. MPs will soon be given the opportunity to vote on decriminalising abortion in England and Wales.
Considering why late-stage abortion seems wrong makes me wonder why it’s acceptable earlier in pregnancy
Under the current law, abortion procedures are still technically illegal, but the 1967 Abortion Act created an exception if the abortion had been approved by two doctors ‘in good faith’ under certain conditions.
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