You can call it killing an unborn baby or you can call it terminating an unwanted pregnancy. What you are talking about is abortion. Some people believe abortion is sinful and therefore seek to restrict or prohibit its availability. Other people think that the decision to have or not to have an abortion belongs ultimately with each individual woman and that restrictive or prohibitive legislation denies women the right to choose.

Fighting for the Principle

The people fighting for safe, legal and freely available abortion are not advocating abortion as a rule, they are fighting for the principle that it is a woman's right to choose whether she wants an abortion or not. Women who seek abortion are not a 'silly' promiscuous minority but are on the whole women who have already had children and women who, through inadequate contraceptive advice or contraceptive failure, conceive.

There is no evidence that restrictive legislation lowers the number of women wishing to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. All it does do is make an abortion hard to obtain and adds to the trauma of an already difficult decision. Women in New Zealand are still choosing to have abortions despite the increased emotional and physical costs. Support groups like SOS (Sisters Overseas Service) are working to help women escape New Zealand's restrictive legislation and obtain abortions in Australia but the cost of approx. $850.00 is prohibitive to most. Other groups, in particular WONAAC (Women's National Abortion Action Campaign) seek the repeal of all abortion laws, fighting for abortion as a real choice and not just theoretically possible under law. This is so that any woman who wants an abortion can get one without fear of being prosecuted as a criminal; without risking her life with a backstreet abortionist and without the legalised inquisition and harrassment by a series of specialists.

Obviously the decision to have an abortion is not made lightly, but it is a decision that the woman involved should have the right to make. Nor is anyone suggesting that there are not alternatives to abortion eg: pregnancy help and adoption, but again the choice must be each individual woman's to make.

Much more than just choice

The right to choose is basic to the liberation of women and feminism. It is more than just the choice to have an abortion or not. It means that a woman has the right to determine her own future, to make her own choices about her life and direction, without the constraint of law, traditional sex role stereotyping or attitude.

The right to choose means that women have the right to decide to have an abortion or not; to have children by choice; to work regardless of whether they have children or not which means freely available childcare; to determine their own sexuality without legal or cultural discrimination; to go out at night without fear of harrassment, attack and rape.

Women have the right to fulfill their full potential without the constant struggle against a system which discriminates against women. Whether your analysis sees capitalism, the patriarchy or consumerism as the cause in our society women are denied the right to choose. They are subject to the decisions and actions of others. Until women are genuinely free to choose and have full control of their own bodies our system remains a repressive and restrictive one. The right to choose is the beginning of the basic human right to personal freedom. As a piece of graffiti last year read:

The difference between pro and anti abortionists, is that pro abortionists don't say everybody has to have an abortion, but the anti abortionists say that nobody can!