Nadine Dorries

ABORTION...

There's more...

crossposted at liberalconspiracy.org.

I feel the need to rant (in a gracious way) about the liberal Abortion Act amendments that have been tabled for the fast-approaching report stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. My male chum Unity has already reported on the time-limit amendment tabled (again) by the one and only Mad Nads Dorries: I wanted to write a bit about the sensible contributions.

Tabled by Evan Harris, Chris McCafferty and Frank Dobson, the two liberal amendments would improve the Abortion Act by - to put it simply - making access to legal abortion easier than it is. The proposals are to get rid of the present requirement for two doctors to approve a request for an abortion, and to make it legal for nurses to perform the procedure.

The case for liberalising abortion law in these ways is as strong as it is encouraging. Abortion Rights has a good paper on the topic which I was reading up until a few minutes ago when their site fell off the face of the earth. Will link to the paper when I find it again.

Excellent piece by Cath on Comment is Free taking Mad Nads Dorries to bits... Nads is round the twist all right. Time for her to push off.

While you're enjoying that, which you will, check out our new campaigning website coalitionforchoice. This is a campaigning pro-choice liberal left website and a great example, if we say so ourselves, of why the web IS SO GREAT. Coming together to take down god-botherers and tories - doesn't get much better than that... truly is bloody great...

PLUS:

Abortion Rights has called an emergency protest for Tuesday 20 May at 5.30pm.

MPs will debate and vote on the anti-abortion amendments to the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill that day - the key amendments being the ones that aim to lower the time limit for abortion. We've written about these moronic proposals plenty.

This vote is taking place a lot earlier than expected and with very little notice.

What a pack of showers.

This is cross-posted at liberalconspiracy.org:

An abortion rights update for you all:

Tis the 1967 Abortion Act's enactment birthday this week, people, and our friends over at Abortion Rights are suggesting a number of activities (no off-colour comments, please) to mark this major occasion.

One excellent way to observe the anniversary yourself is to send a stiff letter to your MP, telling them to vote against any anti-abortion amendments to the Abortion Act that conservative political opportunists try to sneak onto the agenda as the now-famous Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill progresses through parliament this spring.

Here and over at LC, we've argued - correctly - that the HFEB has absolutely nothing to do with abortion law (it's about regulating the sciences of fertilisation and embryology, and - that's it. The End).

Alas, the pro-life loonies keep refusing to make the leap.

Had an abortion?

Like the idea of being able to get one if you need one?

Fight the pro-life religious loonies and add your name to the pro-choice majority.

Am continuing the pro-abortion rights debate over at the New Statesman at the moment - ie, having another go at that naughty Nadine Dorries' plans to try and cut the time limit for abortion.

Nadine, you are bad.

Photos from the pro-choice rally in London, Saturday 3 March 2007.

Keep your rosaries off our ovaries... liked that slogan a lot. Just say no to sex with pro-lifers was another goodie.

You'll find photos from last night's pro-choice rally in London here. The interviews we did will follow shortly.

Amusing point for now - a number of people we talked to at the rally said they'd emailed Tory MP Nadine Dorries to ask questions about the Termination of Pregnancy Bill she plans to table in Parliament on 23 March 2007, and that she hadn't responded to them, either. (She has been ignoring us, as readers of this site will know).

Which is very bad manners. An MP must to respond to members of the public, even if that response is Get Bent.

Time to make a Freedom of Information request asking for all emails Nadine has received and ignored on this most important topic. After all, she started it by trying to table these opportunistic bills in the first place. The least she can do is explain why.

Hey - maybe she can't.

And so nearly THREE WEEKS have passed since we wrote to Tory MP Nadine Dorries at her parliament.uk email address and asked her to explain why she plans to table another Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

We wrote Nadine a very civilised letter on this topic, if we say so ourselves.

Have we had a civilised response?

Have we had any response at all?

We have not.

We have been ignored.

Well - we were directed by somebody other than Nadine to a little comments page on Nadine's site. She rants on about this site on that page for a bit. She also took the opportunity presented by the recent saving of a baby at 22 weeks' gestation to rattle on about God and Stevie Wonder (Nadine is - meaning no disrepect - no great ambassador for subtlety) and the joys of a pro-life perspective. No mention, alas, of providing decent wages or benefits for the women she wants to force to give birth.

Ah well.

It is beginning to occur to us that Nadine isn't one of your big strategic thinkers. We're starting to suspect that the reason she hasn't responded to our concerns is that she can't.

Am having a good debate on the pros and cons of abortion at the moment with the guys over at Harry's Place.

It's been three days and we've still had no reply from Nadine Dorries ... very hurt...

WHY ARE YOU HAVING A GO AT OUR ABORTION RIGHTS, NADINE?

Hello, Nadine? Hello?

Put your knickers on and come and have a chat. 

Look: Nadine Dorries (a Tory MP, for those of you who may be struggling to put a face to the name) is planning to have ANOTHER go at abortion rights .

Nadine, it has to be said, is starting to get seriously on our tits (see this rant).

How about everybody sends Nadine an email at dorriesn@parliament.uk and asks her to take up another hobby.

We're going to write to her now and ask her to expand on her obsession with regression.

----

And we have written to her, as below. She has ten days to respond - ten days being the amount of time that Nadine wants women to be forced by law to spend reflecting on their decision to have an abortion after they've asked for one. We're not quite sure if they'll get ten working days, or just ten normal days, but maybe she can clear that up when she writes back.

Here's the letter:

Hello Nadine,

I'm a pro-abortion journalist who has been writing about a pro-abortion march that is due to take place in London in a few weeks' time.

A considerable number of readers of my website have been concerned to note that you plan to introduce another Termination of Pregnancy Bill in 23 March as per this story. I decided to ask you if you could tell us why you've decided to introduce this bill again, after it was defeated last year, and what effect you expect it to have on women's health if it is passed.

I was also wondering if you could tell me why you think it's appropriate to take this step, and why, by implication, you believe that women can't be trusted to utilise the existing legislation appropriately. The pro-abortion group I have been writing about wants existing criteria for abortion to be relaxed: quite a few people now believe women are sophisticated enough to operate within such an adult scenario.

You'll appreciate that this is an extremely important issue for women. Many of us are already concerned that our right to free and legal abortion is at risk in an era where neo-conservative and conservative religious thinkers play a bigger role in policymaking than most of us envisaged at this point in history.

Best regards,

Hangbitch

Download the pro-abortion 3 March 2007 rally leaflet here.