1 Decriminalise abortion
Most people think women in Britain have easy access to abortion. This is untrue. Abortion in the UK is still illegal under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. “Every woman, being with child,” reads Section 58 of this archaic law, “who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or shall unlawfully use any instrument or other means whatsoever with the like intent… shall be guilty of felony.”
The 1967 Abortion Act only provides for exceptions to the Act. If a woman can convince two doctors to agree that continuing with her pregnancy involves “a risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated” of injury to her physical or mental health, she can get an abortion. Otherwise, she can’t. And if she buys some pills to do it herself, she risks being “kept in penal servitude for life”. So. Not so easy.
Continue reading this article at The New European
