Tiffany Jenkins: Confronting abortion's taboo status is a an absolute must

Published on Friday 21 May 2010 23:15

ONE in three women will have an abortion before they are 45, says Marie Stopes. Out of all the women you know, one third have had, or will have, a pregnancy terminated. Given that you are acquainted with so many people who have considered a termination, or who have had one, ask yourself: how did they go ahead with it? Who did they turn to to talk it through?

Despite the large number affected – men as well as women – abortion is hardly ever publicly and frankly discussed. Forty years after abortion was decriminalised in Britain, it is rare to talk openly about the subject.

Next week there will be a welcome change to this sorry state. The first television advertisement by an abortion provider in Britain will be broadcast on Channel 4, and will be repeated about 25 times until the end of June.

The commercial asks "Are you late?" referring to a woman who has missed her period. It then directs women facing an unplanned pregnancy to Marie Stopes International's 24-hour helpline. The charity and abortion provider is paying for the slot, saying it will "confront the taboo" around unwanted pregnancies.

A spokeswoman from Marie Stopes explained that the ad is "sensitive and tasteful" and will not actually mention abortion." All it does is direct people to call a telephone number where they can talk to someone and get advice.

Even so, campaigners and "pro-life" groups have protested. The commercial doesn't even say the word but they have decided that the issue is too sensitive for you and me.

Mike Judge, from the Christian Institute, complained: "A television commercial is not an appropriate medium for this." And that "getting an abortion is not like buying soap powder, and it shouldn't be advertised on TV".

Mr Judge continued: "This TV ad is not about information, it is a campaign ad by the abortion lobby to normalise what is, after all, an extremely sensitive subject."

But this is how it should be. We need to discuss and make publicly available information about reproductive issues. The commercial was commissioned by Marie Stopes after a YouGov poll of over 2,000 adults showed that only 42 per cent would know where to go for specialist advice (other then their GP) if they or their partner were in such a dilemma.

It also found that 76 per cent of UK adults agreed that adverts about unplanned pregnancy advice services should be allowed on TV at appropriate times.

Abortion is a normal – if difficult to decide on – procedure that many people have to confront on their own. It would be far more supportive and helpful for everyone concerned if it were more out in the open and they knew where to get information. But we shouldn't stop there. This advert could be the start of a much needed national debate about abortion today.

Channel 4 has been prevented from screening the commercial in Northern Ireland, where abortion is still illegal. In this province, in the 21st century, desperate women arrive at hospitals with internal injuries after dangerously attempting to end their pregnancy at home. When they recover they can be prosecuted. It's like the dark ages.

As it is in Britain, because while the procedure, in early pregnancy at least, is now easily available, the legislation is archaic and needs challenging. Although the 1967 Abortion Act legalises abortion, it has never been decriminalised. It still remains regulated by the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. It is a criminal offence to procure or perform one, punishable by imprisonment.

The get-out clause is that abortion is legal where two medical practitioners declare they have decided "in the good faith" that a woman should be able to terminate her pregnancy. Two doctors have the final say. But it is not a medical decision. It is a personal and moral one. The requirement for doctors' signatures does not often operate as a barrier and is a formality. That they have to sign is usually just a technicality and women are able to readily access abortion when they need it.

Even so, this should not detract from the fact that the two-doctor rule has symbolic significance that speaks volumes about the way we are treated. It sends out the message that women do not have moral and intellectual capacity to decide whether abortion is right decision for them.

This attitude towards women reveals a level of distrust about a determination which profoundly impacts people's lives. This law tells us that are not able to make the call. This is regardless of the fact that it is our womb and that the continuance of the pregnancy will result in a child we have responsibility for. Instead the doctor is deemed to know best.

It is time to put the women's right to choose back on the political agenda. It is right, if not a right, for people to make their own choices about their pregnancy and not a medic. The people most connected should be the ones who take the decision for what happens next. That is true personal responsibility.

The calls not to show the Marie Stopes commercial because it treats abortion like a product or as conveyer-belt process, show a lack of knowledge of why women go through with abortion, how they make that decision and what it is like.

Women who have abortions rarely appear in the public debate as normal women, which is who they are. Women just like you and me: your sister, mother and lover, who most often seek a termination because they happen to have become pregnant accidentally through contraceptive failure, or because of the breakdown of a relationship. Their decision was nothing like choosing a soap powder. It was a choice they should be trusted to make and discuss out in the open.