UK – Three cheers for Labour’s plan for abortion reform

Three cheers for Labour’s plan for abortion reform
Decriminalising abortion is essential for women’s freedom.

Ella Whelan, Columnist
29th November 2019

General Elections should be exciting. Political parties get to try out new policies, push their voters and attempt to gain a mandate for real change. And while it’s true that the key issue of our winter election is Brexit, from spending promises to immigration, there are many other issues at stake.

The Labour Party might be terrible when it comes to Brexit, but one policy in its manifesto is truly radical. In just nine words, Labour promises to change women’s lives dramatically: ‘We will uphold women’s reproductive rights and decriminalise abortions.’

Continued: https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/11/29/three-cheers-for-labours-plan-for-abortion-reform/

Ireland: this is just the beginning

Ireland: this is just the beginning
Decriminalisation is long overdue. But will much change in practice?

Ella Whelan, Columnist
24th October 2019

Northern Ireland’s government in Stormont has been inactive for over 1,000 days. Sinn Fein and the DUP have been unable to bury the hatchet over a botched environmental policy and age-old rows over cultural practices. With the power-sharing agreement unable to function, the Northern Irish civil service has been left running the country, unable to make any key decisions. As a result, the UK parliament passed a law that instructed the two parties to return to Stormont to kiss and make up or face the prospect of Westminster taking over.

After an embarrassing performance in Stormont on Monday, in which a handful of politicians made a hamfisted show of trying to come back together, at midnight Westminsters’ threats became real and the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 came into force. Most significantly, the law also repealed sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, clearing the way for the decriminalisation of abortion.

Continued: https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/10/24/abortion-in-northern-ireland-this-is-just-the-beginning/

What we learned from the forced-abortion case

What we learned from the forced-abortion case
So pro-lifers suddenly care about the state meddling in women’s affairs?

Ella Whelan, Columnist
4th July 2019

A woman’s decision to have an abortion is a deeply personal and private matter. But one mentally disabled woman living in England had her pregnancy discussed in public at length recently, following a court ruling mandating doctors to abort the pregnancy without her consent, which was later overturned.

The pregnant woman had a ‘moderately severe’ learning disorder and the mental age of a child aged between six and nine. Doctors questioned her ability to handle the psychological toll of childbirth and raising the child. The woman’s mother, her social worker and her lawyers all argued that she was capable of giving birth, and argued that the child’s grandmother would do most of the caregiving. Despite their pleas, the Court of Protection ruled that termination was in the woman’s ‘best interests’. After the case was taken to the Court of Appeal, the ruling was thankfully overturned.

Continued: https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/07/04/what-we-learned-from-the-forced-abortion-case/

04.07.2019

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abortion for mental disability

2018: the fight for abortion rights gets real

2018: the fight for abortion rights gets real
This year we made some historic gains for women's freedom.

Ella Whelan, Columnist
27th December 2018

2018 has been a big year for pro-choice campaigners. Across the world, women (and men) have argued for more liberal abortion laws – and in some cases they won the argument.

First there was Ireland. In May, ‘Yes’ voters won a landslide victory in a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution. The Eighth Amendment enshrined the ‘right to life’ of the unborn, meaning that abortion in the Republic of Ireland was prohibited even in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape and incest.

Continued: https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/12/27/2018-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-gets-real/

Standing up for Irish women’s abortion rights

Spiked-online.com

Ella Whelan, assistant editor, Spiked-online.com

Inspiring new initiatives are helping Irish women get the services they need.

7 September 2016

Getting an abortion in Ireland is near impossible. In the 21st century, the governments of both north and south have more control over women’s wombs than women themselves do.

In Northern Ireland, abortion is still illegal under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, as the 1967 Abortion Act, which partially decriminalised abortion in England, Scotland and Wales, does not apply there. Women who are found guilty of having an abortion face a sentence of up to life in prison. In the Republic of Ireland, abortion is also illegal, under the much-protested Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution.

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Source: Spiked-online.com