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The thought of a late abortion is obviously an emotive subject even within the abortion movement. At the National Abortion Campaign Conference last April a decision was reached, after widespread discussion, to push for no legal or medical restrictions on abortion. Judy -Should women have a choice throughout pregnancy to terminate it, or should there be a -Is there a stage when the 'foetus becomes a 'baby" before it leaves the womb -Should women only have the right to decide and then should a doctor/the state/society We believe a woman's right to choose means we must be able to decide if and when to have children. Full control of our fertility is essential if we are to control our lives. limit?
decide?
A foetus is undeniably a potential human being but it does not yet have social, intellectual and emotional links. By 12 weeks all the organs of a foetus are functioning but the anti abortionists draw the line at conception.
In the abortion movement we accept that life has begun at conception but cannot agree that a foetus life is more important or equally important to the womans. We belive that a womans actual life always outweighs a foetus potential life so it should be her hoice.
A woman is happy about her pregnancy may consider the foetus to be a 'baby" at 8 weeks. Another, who is unhappy, may consider the foetus as only an unwanted, upsetting change in her body and a potential misery.
What is a viability?
At present, viability (the point at which a foetus can survive independently of a woman's body) stands legally at 28 weeks. The Infant Life Preservation Act states that abortion is legal up to 28 weeks or viability. There have been reported cases of foetuses surviving at 25/26 weeks. Already SPUC is jumping on this point threatening to take up a test case on any doctor who carries out an abortion at 25 weeks as they claim this is now viability.
As medical science advances, it brings forward the point at which a foetus can survive outside the womb. This will create a situation where we will be forced to accept more and more restrictions to a woman's right to choose.
But many people have a cut off point at 7 months precisely because this is the point at which we are aware that incubators can help a foetus to survive and we know many people who were born at 7 months.
In a future society where we know people who were born at 4 months this would obviously produce a similarly emotive response at the thought of aborting 4 months foetuses.
This makes it clear that the 'medical' point of viability is really irrelevant, as we are talking about the principle of a woman being able to abort a foetus during the period in which it is part of her body. It is the aspect concerning her body we consider to be more important.
Not the church, not the state, not the doctors.
To set an upper time limit on abortion is to say to the pregnant woman "Yes, we believe in your right to make decisions affecting your body and your life for the first 12/20/ 24/28 weeks of your pregnancy-then it must be someone elses
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Watson and Rose Knight explain why. The discussion within NAC confronted these questions: