Abortion on both sides of the Atlantic is taking centre stage
How has the history of the abortion debate in the UK and the US diverged in such a strong way? And is it reconverging now?
In 1968 Martin Luther King, recognising the progress his movement had made in white supremacist America, made the claim that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. Many have taken that principle to heart. Progress may take a long time, may be hard-fought, but progress is inevitable. And when achieved, progress is unassailable. A bit like recent British governments, hard-fought (against), inevitable, and depressingly unassailable.
Those who believed in this worldview likely had it turned upside down in June of 2022 when the US Supreme Court decided Dobbs and overturned 50 years of hard-won progress for women’s rights and bodily autonomy. All of sudden abortion has become a major electoral issue on one side of the Atlantic, but on the other side surprisingly the subject is coming up as well, with intriguingly similar tunes. A sort of inverse British invasion, but with less hip gyrating.
Carla Foster was 42 when she, around 32 weeks pregnant, took abortion pills inducing labour and giving birth to a stillborn fetus. At age 45 Foster was in jail, awaiting trial for undertaking an illegal abortion. Most importantly, Carla Foster was not from Arkansas, Missouri or Arizona, or some other hard line US state on abortion, rather, Foster based in the UK, had broken an almost unheard-of English and Welsh law criminalising abortions after week 24.
For Carla Foster it was a bit like pulling the sword out of the stone, but instead of becoming King of England, she become the resident of a 2x4sqm room.
Foster’s case led to a reevaluation of abortion rights in the United Kingdom. And progress (the bending arc to justice) felt inevitable in the UK. After all, even the religiously conservative hold-out of Northern Ireland had legalised abortion rights in 2020.
Most likely this week England will continue the march to progress. Labour MP Diane Johnson is proposing a legal amendment to decriminalize abortion in general in the UK, bringing English and Welsh law in line with the current laws in Scotland and NI. It's pretty much assured passage. But quietly now, let's not tell the English they’ll be the same as Scots - just kidding.
However, the debate this week might also reveal shifting opinions over abortion and a seed of a future electoral issue in the UK. Conservative MP Caroline Ansell has advocated moving the cut off for legal abortions to 22 weeks from 24 weeks. Why? Because clearly the facts of the Foster case reveal the UK is too kind to women seeking abortions? Uh no. In general, cases like that of Carla Foster are not as uncommon as typically understood.
Since 2018 around 60 women have been charged with criminal abortions in the UK, reflecting a sore wound in the country’s protection of its most vulnerable people. Decriminalisation of any abortion whenever performed is what is being argued now. Regulation is still up for grabs.
And perhaps now that American pro-life campaigners have increased their attention to the British side of the pond it seems MPs like Ansell are listening. After all, if the UK can export Nigel Farage why shouldn’t the US reciprocate (and export some of their retro odd-balls).
The christian lobby, Alliance Defending Freedom has doubled its spending in the UK since 2020, and begun engaging more and more on abortion and religious liberty issues with British MPs. Of course, they mean liberty to practice their religion not anyone else's.
Nevertheless, the greatest pro-life mania and repression of a woman’s right to choose her destiny remains in the US.
Most recently Donald Trump made his official position known - the decision on abortion access should be left to the states - Arizona instantly undermined his careful tightrope walk by reviving a 150 year old law (passed before it was a State and before women could vote) fully criminalizing the practice. So let's leave it to the States to decide…..
Trump’s position reflects a unique lose-lose for right-wing politicians. A few weeks ago we spoke about the way anti-immigration rhetoric offered a lose-lose position on the political left, it’s something of a similar case here.
After 3 Years of Too Boring, Biden is now Officially Too Interesting.
Trump, in his spray-tanned wisdom, has effectively picked a position that might risk him garnering no votes at all. He has not taken the right-wing position, asserting that abortions are always wrong, because it looks like it could be a losing position amongst the larger American electorate who detest the thought of abortion restrictions, even if it's a winner with his evangelical supporters.
Instead, Trump has effectively taken a halfway house position or no position at all.
His own party when they have state control restricts abortion into non-existence yet officially he takes no stand for or against abortion and wink, wink, that way States can keep on regulating away women's rights. But if abortion rights are important to you why would you vote for Trump? A man who just said he won't protect you from the State legislating your womb. Talk about deep state shenanigans.
Perhaps people will end up voting for a president and party that is advocating actual, real abortion protections?? Yet what seems obvious on paper is less so in practice so we’ll have to wait until November to see how the wind blows on that one.
Nevertheless, clearly abortion rights are no longer assured in the US or the UK. While our parties grapple with new positions on abortion, gender, etc. Protections and rights we once took for granted could disappear under the guise of religious liberty. Like Brexit did to living in Spain or Dobbs did about giving birth when we want.
In the US the question of whether women have the right to choose may well decide which octogenarian will have the nuclear codes. In the UK, the question seems irrelevant, but so did the ability to effortlessly retire to the Costa del Sol.
Before we know it we could be witnessing debates on abortion in the Houses of Parliament. Stranger things have happened… like farmers asking for Universal Basic Income. Huh? True but that's for another article…. and when the Conservatives are finally at the end of the road with their self proclaimed PM and their control of the government is over, it is likely that the rump of the Tory party will be swinging further to the right. Will religious liberty be their next clarion call? Heaven help us - no pun intended.
From hard Brexit to forced birth who could have ever imagined such bumps in Justice’s arc. Yet extreme positions seem to be du jour on the conservative side of both UK and US Houses these days. Extreme abortion rights positions are being tested as we speak. Freedom curtailed. Justice nailed. You choose!
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