Protest rages against attack on abortion rights

News

The state and judges have no right to say what women can do with their bodies

Over 1,000 people joined a protest in London on Saturday against laws that enabled a judge to jail Carla Foster for 28 months for accessing abortion pills to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. 

Protesters gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London for a protest called by the  British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the Women’s Equality Party and the Fawcett Society. 

Protesters held placards that read “Healthcare not handcuffs” and chanted “One, two, three, safe, legal, free.”

The Abortion Rights grassroots pro-choice campaign tweeted, “The mood is noisy and angry. One in three women have abortions and policing our bodies is the real crime.”

Activist Sheila told Socialist Worker, “We have to defend our right to free legal and safe abortions. Putting Carla Foster in jail is a complete outrage.

“The state and judges have no right to say what women can do with their bodies. 

“We’re back to fighting, and now we have to go after the 1861 act, which has been used to put Carla Foster in prison. We have to get rid of that as well.” 

Protesters marched to Downing Street, calling for Foster to be freed. 

At one point, crowds also chanted, “One struggle, one fight. Trans rights are women’s rights and “No justice, no peace. No sexist police”. 

Protester Jay said, “I suffered before the 1967 act, which decriminalised abortion. I had to have two backstreet abortions. There were no pills, so accidents were common.

“It was a horrible thing to take that risk and lie on someone’s kitchen table with the kettle boiling to sterilise the instruments.

‘I stand with Carla’ (Picture: Guy Smallman)

“I don’t want to see any women have to go back to that situation. I want all women to be free to decide when and if they have a child. 

“A great injustice has been done to Carla Foster. The government has caused immense distress to her and her children. The government should be ashamed of itself,” she added. 

It’s urgent to decriminalise abortion. Abortion is still a criminal offence in England and Wales. The Abortion Act 1967 did not completely decriminalise it. Abortion is legal only if medical professionals say so. 

And a battery of laws, such as the 1861 act that was used to jail Carla Foster, can still punish women and pregnant people for having abortions.

According to the Office of National Statistics, there were nine recorded offences of Procuring illegal abortion between April 2021 and March 2022 and 24 recorded offences for the “intentional destruction of a viable unborn child” over the same period, the highest number since 2017.

Women must decide what happens to their bodies. The arbitrary time limits and restrictive laws must go and the state must provide full resources to make abortion rights real.

Fighting in Poland too

Thousands of people took to the streets in 50 cities across Poland this week to demand the legalisation of abortion. 

Protests were sparked by the news that Dorota Lalik had died due to complications in her pregnancy. Patients’ rights ombudsman, Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, said that an abortion could have saved her life. 

Lalik’s husband told Polish media, “No one gave us the choice or the chance to save Dorota because no one told us her life was at risk.”

Lalik’s death is the fifth known case of a pregnant woman dying because of complications since the ruling Law and Justice party tightened abortion laws to ban terminations even in cases of foetal abnormalities. 

Those new laws led to furious mass demonstrations across Poland in 2020. 

Everywhere that abortion rights are under attack, whether it’s in Britain, Poland, the United States or elsewhere, activists must fight back on the streets.