Victory for Abortion Rights!
Posted by Anji on Wednesday 21st May 2008
I went up to London last night to join the Abortion Rights demo outside Parliament - and what a demonstration it was! One thousand women and men who value the right of a woman to make her own decisions regarding her body turned up to protest. I met some really awesome people, and the atmosphere was amazing. There was a small counter-protest from anti-choicers right next to us… they walked across the front of our demo several times waving banners and at one point a woman shouted at us from in front “An embryo is a human life! You’re all baby-killing pigs!” to which we couldn’t help but laugh and double our shouting and chanting efforts - among others, “Keep your rosaries off our ovaries!” and “Pro-life, that’s a lie, you don’t care if women die!”
Ginge, my best friend in the world, happens to work in Whitehall and finished around seven, so he came by after work and stood with us for a while before letting me hitch a lift back to Portsmouth, where we then sat with bated breath in front of BBC Parliament as the votes were taken on reducing the abortion limit to 12, 16, 20 or 22 weeks. All were roundly rejected - you can read more on that at the BBC’s article or at the Guardian.
I’m buzzing with a feeling of relief - but now is not the time to sit on our laurels. It is still a fact that, if the Conservatives win the next general election, the abortion time limit could still be cut. Plus, the amendment to remove the archaic need for a woman to obtain two doctors’ signatures before she is allowed to seek an abortion was taken off the table. There is still a battle to be fought, and we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us. But last night’s protest proved that we are the pro-choice majority, and we can make a difference. Let’s keep on proving that we will not allow the clocks to be turned back on a woman’s right to choose. See the article What’s next for choice? for more details on that.
You can read and see more about last night’s protest and the fight to keep the rights our foremothers fought so hard for us to have in the following places:
In Writing:
- Time Limit Vote - Decisive Win for Women - Abortion Rights UK
- Fucking Yes! - Laura Woodhouse at the F-Word
- Parliament Rejects Restrictions On Abortion - Rhetorically Speaking
- Fuck Yes! - Scorpio Risen
- Making The Right Decision - Antonia’s Blog
- Abortion Limit Kept! - Crazy Like Us?
- Sanity Prevails - The Scary Door
- Fail! - Journalesque
- YES! - Penny Red
- Emergency demo on abortion time limits… - Harpymarx
- 24 Week Demo Quick Report - Liam Macuaid
- Smack-down! - Birth Pangs
- Reproductive Justice Victories in the UK - Feminist Philosophers
- UK won’t lower abortion limit from 24 weeks - Feministing
- Abortion Rights Upheld For Women - Uplift Magazine
In Pictures:
- My photographs of the protest.
- Jess McCabe’s photographs of the protest.
- Internets_Dairy’s photographs of the protest.
- Simon-K’s photographs of the protest.
This list will be updated as more feminist and pro-woman bloggers will inevitably write about it. 
Wednesday 21st May 2008 at 12:21pm
Oh man, I have to say I can’t get ehavily involved in this stuff, but I FELT the wave of relief when I heard that they had voted in women’s favor and that we still have our right. It was scary to think they could have taken that away…
I mean one thing leads to another right?
The people who want the time reduced also want it banned- so if we let them have their way in their rediculous protest it could be the beginning of taking away what women fought and fight for.
I fear always that something may happen to me that I have no control over, and that I have no opportunity to protect myself. I mean there is a morning after pill, but still, you don’t always know, do you?
It’s alright for others to say we should definitely know, but we don’t. It’s not like we have a preg-radar or anything.
I don’t mind other people doing what they want, but they are my ovaries and my eggs.
Wednesday 21st May 2008 at 5:24pm
Thanks for the link, and great photos. I had to chuckle at the tiny little pro-life protest…in fact, I could almost feel sorry for them. But not quite.