Forthcoming event in London in support of abortion rights

Abortion Rights : Defend abortion rights – join the national lobby of parliament! – 7th May

• no attack on the 24 week time limit
• for a woman’s right to choose

3-6pm lobby of Parliament
7pm public meeting (venue tbc)

Initial major supporters include: fpa, TUC, STUC, NUS, UNISON, UNITE the union, GMB, PCS, NAPO, ASLEF, RMT and FBU

This will be an important opportunity to make sure MPs feel the strength of pro-choice opinion ahead of key votes on abortion in the House of Commons. Please put the date in your diary, make an appointment with your MP, start organising transport and encourage friends, and colleagues to join you!

To identify and contact your MP visit upmystreet or call the House of Commons on 020 7219 3000. Alternatively you can write to your MP at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

To add your organisation as a supporter of the event or to let us know if you can attend either the lobby of the rally, please email us.

Please download the lobby flyer to photocopy and distribute widely.

Source: Women in London website

Pro-choice advocates take to the streets to protest against anti-abortion in London

On February 6, 2008 in London, more than 400 pro-choice advocates took to the streets in favor of abortion. Protesting outside Central Hall Westminster against the London leg of an anti-abortion road show with Ann Widdecombe MP and Lord David Alton, the crowd waved banners and placards reading “83 per cent support choice”, “no attack on the time limit – defend a woman’s right to choose” and “more abortion rights, not less!”. The pro-choice activists, students, trade unionists, and other protesters gathered to defend women’s right to choose could be heard across at Parliament, while they chanted “our bodies, our lives, our right to decide”, “not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate” and “hey, ho, attack our rights? We say no!”.

The protest showed the strong feeling in support of abortion and against any planned attacks on women’s abortion rights in Parliament by anti-abortion MPs in coming months – particularly on the abortion time limit. The road show with Ann Widdecombe aims to mobilise anti-abortionists to lobby MPs ahead of key votes.

Many leading figures from the British political scene and from women’s rights associations had given their backing to the pro-choice demonstration, including Christine McCafferty MP, Emily Thornberry MP, Fiona McTaggart MP; Baroness Joyce Gould, Baroness Jenny Tonge, Katherine Rake, Director Fawcett Society; Anni Marjoram, Advisor to Mayor of London; Jane Loftus, CWU President; Siobhan Endean, Women’s Officer UNITE the UNION; Sharon Green UNISON; Megan Dobney, Secretary SERTUC; Kat Stark NUS Women’s Officer.

Following the protest, Abortion Rights said it will be calling public initiatives at every key stage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

Meanwhile further protests were organised for Liverpool on 12th February, Coventry on 13th February and Cardiff on 4th March 2008. But the more symbolic mobilisation was the one in London for International Women’s Day on 8th March.

A campaign launched in Ile-de-France to protect a right gained 33 years earlier

Since January 18, 2008 in the French underground and in some train stations, about 600 posters entitled “ Sexuality, contraception, abortion, a right, my choice, our freedom” have been placarded to draw the public’s attention on the difficulties still faced by many women who want to abort in the capital and its suburbs.

The slogan is part of a new campaign launched by the Family Planning in coordination with the region of Ile-de-France (Paris area).

According to the campaigners, Ile-de-France (which is the most populated region of France) is also a “region where the obstacles are becoming more and more numerous when it comes to assert ones rights in terms of abortion. A region where access to abortion remains an hassle”.

The Family Planning claims that the lack of financial and moral care, the important delays or the reduction of the number of medical centres dedicated to abortion often plunge women in a situation of time trial since abortion cannot be performed beyond 12 weeks of pregnancy according to the French law.

For all these reasons, it is said that 3 000 to 5 000 women are forced every year in France to terminate their pregnancy abroad. Women who live in Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Cotes d’Azur and Outre-Mer regions are said to be the most exposed to difficulties during the tiring process of abortion (Source French Movement for Family Planning).

More than a matter of law, the question of intolerance seems to be the main ongoing obstacle to abortion in France, 33 years after its legalisation, pushed forward by the famous French lawyer and politician Simone Veil in 1975.

For the pro-life movement, the campaign is obviously an “advertising in favour of abortion”. People opposed to interruption of pregnancy are still numerous in France, and that despite some recent declarations from the government defending the right of women to abort. On Saturday 19, 2008, an handful of anti-abortion militants organised a “march for life”.