Workers Solidarity Movement

Last November the High Court in Belfast ruled that the near blanket ban on abortion was incompatible with human rights legislation the cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities.  While it was a landmark ruling and is reflective of the change in society from the days of religious domination it doesn't change the law. The ruling does nothing other than place pressure on Stormont to change the law.

So why is it that two high profile appeals have been submitted against the ruling? One of them from the Attorney General, John Larkin, a well known anti-choicer, and the other from the Minister of Justice, David Ford.

John Larkin's reason for appeal is that he is against a woman making a decision over own body in all circumstances.

David Ford's reason for appeal is a bit more crafty and he covers up his anti-choice bigotry well. He believes that the wording of the appeal could lead to abortion on demand, something he believes that the general public does not want. It might shock the minister to learn that a 2014 Belfast Telegraph poll showed that 58% of the general public supported abortion on demand after counseling was sought on alternatives.

Not that the ruling was even about abortion in all circumstances, it was about abortion in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities, which 68% of the general public supports.

We are compelled, however, to utterly reject his approval of some abortions and damnation of others, damnation to the point of life imprisonment under current law. There is no good abortion and there is no bad abortion, there is just abortion and people making the decision best for themselves. Likewise, banning abortions does not mean that they no longer exist, it means that safe abortions no longer exist.

Abortions happen here all the time through the use of pills just like they happen in the rest of the UK, the difference being that when women have an abortion here they are criminals. We have politicians who insist that we are British yet when it comes to abortion they essentially say "why should we be subjected to British law?".

Are we not sick and tired of seeing cis men, who will never be pregnant in their lives, making decisions on our behalf? Of them branding good women criminals because they did not continue a pregnancy; of them having an opinion on a deeply personal decision of someone they don't even know?
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If you need an abortion please visit www.womenhelp.org or www.womenonweb.org or www.abortionsupport.org.uk