Beyond Pro-life and Pro-choice : The Changing Politics of Abortion in Britain

A common misunderstanding of the Abortion Act 1967 is that it granted women the ‘right’ to access abortion. In reality, there is no such thing; the current provision of abortion in the United Kingdom rests on a system in which doctors, not women, are the arbiters of abortion access. In recent years, calls for the full decriminalisation of abortion have been given a vigour not seen before. For the first time, MPs and medical associations have moved to back decriminalisation, in line with the demands of pro-choice campaigners across the UK. But at the same time, opponents are mobilising to undermine public faith in both the Abortion Act and abortion providers. In doing so, they have tended to set aside the classic ‘right to life’ arguments, instead focusing on issues such as sex-selective abortion and disability rights. This book makes sense of today’s changed landscape of abortion debate by tracing the evolution of political and parliamentary discourse on abortion from the passage of the Abortion Act in the 1960s to the present. It makes the case that to understand contemporary abortion politics, it is necessary to move beyond a conceptualisation of the debate as characterised by ‘pro-choice’ versus ‘pro-life’. Cover Beyond Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Copyright page Table of contents List of Tables List of abbreviations Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Interpreting abortion law Where we are now Analysing abortion debates Structure of the book 2 Regulating the Female Body Pregnancy, motherhood and feminism Abortion and women’s status The history of abortion law Making sense of history Complicating feminist accounts The significance of abortion 3 Passing the Abortion Act 1967 The origins of the Abortion Act 1967 Medical opinion before the Act The medical reformists The medical purists The ‘social doctor’ Second Reading Committee stage Report stage Lords Women, motherhood and mental health Notifications After the Act Social questions, medical answers 4 Feminism Enters the Debate Contesting the Abortion Act 1967 Defending the status quo Parliamentary debates The Lane Committee, 1971–74 Feminism in the debate Narrating ‘acceptable’ abortion Feminism in Parliament Pro-woman language in anti-abortion discourse The Irvine Bill, 1969–70 The White Bill, 1974–75 The Benyon Bill, 1976–77 The Corrie Bill, 1979–80 Female vice and virtue in the debates ‘Brazen’ and ‘broken’ women Abortion ‘scandals’ and national identity Dealing with the ‘woman problem’ 5 Backlash and Appropriation The early 1980s: continuity and change The Richardson Bill, 1981 The Robertson Bill, 1982 Defending the Abortion Act 1967 Feminism, medicine and female virtue Feminist demands Medicalization and technicization Female virtue and acceptable abortion Anti-abortion discourse Virtue, vice and ‘frivolous’ abortion Foetal subjects Appropriation and backlash The 1990s: anti-abortion politics in decline? Early medical abortion Keeping the debate alive Tackling the backlash 6 Into the 21st Century Prohibition, counselling and cooling off Medical purity, progress and a ‘right to know’ Feminists respond The Department of Health responds The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill 2008 Report of the Science and Technology Committee Anti-abortion arguments Feminist arguments Northern Ireland After the HFE Act 2008 Pro-choicers on the back foot 7 Towards Decriminalization? New Battlegrounds in Abortion Politics The changing climate of abortion opinion Medical opinion Devolution and abortion provision Buffer zones The decriminalization campaign Campaigning for decriminalization Campaigning against decriminalization In Parliament New battlegrounds: sex selection The Stop Gendercide campaign Defeating the campaign New battlegrounds: disability A reinvigorated pro-choice politics 8 Conclusion Abortion rights advocacy in context Anti-abortion politics in context Interrogating ‘choice’ The future of abortion politics Notes References Index Examining the changing pluralities of contemporary abortion debate in Britain, this innovative and important book shows why it is necessary to move beyond an understanding of abortion politics as characterised in binary terms by 'pro-choice' versus 'pro-life'. Amery traces the evolution of political and parliamentary discourses from the passage of the Abortion Act in the 1960s to the present day, and argues that the current provision of abortion in Britain rests on assumptions about medical authority over women's reproductive decision-making which are unsustainable. She explores new arguments around sex-selective abortion, disability rights, pre-abortion counselling and the push for decriminalization, and radically reconceptualizes the debate to account for these new battlegrounds in abortion politics.|Examining the changing pluralities of contemporary abortion debate in Britain, this innovative and important book shows why it is necessary to move beyond an understanding of abortion politics as characterised in binary terms by 'pro-choice' versus 'pro-life'. Amery traces the evolution of political and parliamentary discourses from the passage of the Abortion Act in the 1960s to the present day, and argues that the current provision of abortion in Britain rests on assumptions about medical authority over women's reproductive decision-making which are unsustainable. She explores new arguments around sex-selective abortion, disability rights, pre-abortion counselling and the push for decriminalization, and radically reconceptualizes the debate to account for these new battlegrounds in abortion politics. Tracing the evolution of political discourse on abortion from the 1960s to today, this interdisciplinary book argues that in order to understand the changing pluralities of contemporary abortion debate, it is necessary to move beyond an understanding of abortion politics as characterised by 'pro-choice' and 'pro-life'. Tracing the evolution of political discourse on abortion from the 1960s to today, this interdisciplinary text argues that in order to understand the changing pluralities of contemporary abortion debate, it is necessary to move beyond an understanding of abortion politics as characterised by 'pro-choice' and 'pro-life' Tracing the evolution of political discourse on abortion from the 1960s to today, this interdisciplinary book argues that in order to understand the changing pluralities of contemporary abortion debate, it is necessary to move beyond an understanding of abortion politics as characterized by pro-choice and pro-life.