abortion act

Pro-choice MP Katy Clark on gearing up for next week's vote on the existing abortion time limit of 24 weeks:

Remember this, says pro-choice MP Katy Clark: the abortion debate we're having should not be about the 24-week time limit for the legal right for abortion. The issue is purely and simply one of a woman's right to choose - whether the state should make it lawful for a woman to terminate a pregnancy. The End, in many ways.

Except that it's not the end, of course: there are only a few days left before MPs take their first vote on proposals to amend the Abortion Act via the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, and Clark is certainly one that feels that a woman's right to choose a legal abortion is 'under a very real threat.'

She is less concerned about the junk science being witlessly peddled by the likes of Queen Halfwit Nadine Dorries than she is about those MPs who sit in the middle, do not hold hardline views, and may still be persuaded to vote in unhelpful ways. That's where the danger probably lies, as attendees of this year's earlier Abortion Rights' lobbies are only too aware.

As Clark rightly pointed out at one of those lobbies, parliament is made up largely of men. Those men need to know that women won't tolerate negative equity on abortion rights. 'We must build such a campaign [that] the men who are going to vote on whether we have the right to make a choice have no choice but to accept that we need real rights…’ After all, as Clark says now: 'we [already] know which way pro-lifers will vote.'

She isn't especially minded to say how Labour MPs are likely to vote, though, which doesn't inspire confidence, altogether: 'It's a free vote... Labour MPs have traditionally been pro-choice,' is as far as Clark will go on that topic. I push her a bit further on it. She says that she has spoke to 'dozens of MPs' on the subject, but that she will not speculate on Labour's general mood or inclination on the topic of time limit. 'I won't go down that path,' she says firmly. This isn't the best thing I've heard, to be honest - is this just clever political reticence, or does it mean that Gordon Brown is still permitting his limping troops to dither?

Police permission has been granted for the Abortion Rights protest at Parliament this coming week. It's shaping up as a memorable event. Details for the protest are:

Assemble outside Central Hall Westminster
Wednesday 6 February, 6.30pm
Nearest tube: Westminster.

You can find full details for the protest and a flyer to download at the Abortion Rights website.

There's been heated debate over at liberalconspiracy.org this week about the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, the Christian right's attempts to amend the Abortion Act through this bill, the rights of lesbian couples to conceive using IVF, and the language some of us use to describe Christians.

Many interesting perspectives, although mine's the best.