John Moss, the candidate in Hackney South & Shoreditch in 2005, argues that the best way to reduce abortions is to stop providing them for free on the NHS.
The last week has seen a significant escalation of the debate over abortion. This debate has centred on the limit that should apply to the age of the foetus before abortion is no longer allowed, with many claiming medical advances have made the survival of the foetus much more likely at earlier gestation times. Much has also been made of the increase in the numbers of women having abortions and the comments by Lord Steel - architect of the original 1967 legislation which legalised abortion – suggesting medical abortion had now simply become another form of contraception.
It is this last comment which prompted me to write, because for a long time, I have thought that the debate focuses on the wrong thing, namely the right of a woman to choose to abort and the limits which are placed on that. The former really is a done deal and the latter is far too subjective an assessment to be anything other than a proxy for the former.
Rather, I believe we should be looking at this issue from the perspective of what policy will achieve the result all people might reasonably want to see. Namely, fewer abortions, brought about by a reduction in unplanned pregnancy, whether by a reduction in conceptions because of more widespread and successful use of other methods of contraception, or a simple reduction in sexual activity.
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