@Jennifer1984 Said 
The abortion debate is about Women’s Rights, not 24 Weeks
Firstly, let me say this: Abortion limits should not be off limits. Existing laws should be periodically scrutinised to ensure they are as scientifically and ethically sound as possible, but we must be watchful too.
The debate is being seized by dedicated right-wingers, religious zealots and anti-feminists. This is what is happening in UK, as the slithery, slimy, former Health Minister Jeremy Hunt, the baleful, hopeless former Minister for Women Maria Miller and the controversial and obnoxious Conservative MP, Nadine Dorries continue to call for a reduction of the existing 24 week threshold for abortion.
The Conservative Party seems somehow to be spawning an undeclared, determined, US-type Tea Party - only with added scones, butter and jam - within its ranks.
As the extreme right tightens it's grip on the Conservative government and this sort of cabal attempts to swoop down on women's reproductive rights, any hope of constructive debate is being swept aside.
The argument, ostensibly about legal abortion is, in my opinion, more to do with the slow but real advances made by women towards autonomy, equality and freedom. What makes the likes of Hunt, Miller and Dorries so dangerous to that cause is that they don’t sound reactionary or crazed. Instead, they come across as plausible.
They must be aware that the number of teenage pregnancies is too high, and too many young and / or poorly educated women with babies are on benefit and are, in the words of some, a ‘burden on the state’. How these right-wingers rationalise their arguments is a mystery to me.
But here are a couple of points for them to think about: less than 8% of foetuses are aborted at 24 weeks and most of those are because congenital abnormalities were either undetectable, or were not detected, at an earlier stage.
Abortions help poor families not to get poorer, and we shouldn’t get judgemental and think that these women are too stupid to use contraception.
Controlling women’s bodies is about a bigger and more chilling agenda. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is losing its voice in the UK;
As Brexit starts to squeeze the life out of Britain, more women are being laid off from work than men and the Conservative government’s austerity programme (which is NOT over, no matter what you say, Mrs May) is disproportionately affecting women.
By politicising abortion, these Conservative hard-liners make it increasingly difficult for a dispassionate case to be made for any reduction in the current limit.
It has been a long road from 1967 when David Steele (Liberal) pushed through our current, enlightened abortion law.
But give the anti-abortionist militia an inch and they will take a mile. So, until the argument becomes truly objective again, I say no. The limit must stay where it is
Feb 03, 2019 @ 09:17:19
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