Blogging in Support of a Fragile Case

It’s the 35th anniversary of the U.S.A. Supreme Court in the case of Roe v. Wade, a decision which allowed the legalisation of terminations of pregnancy in the U.S.A. on what is widely viewed as essentially a technicality, which is why the case is still so important. There is no Federal legislation decriminalising abortion, merely a court decision which could be overturned either by the court itself or by new legislation. The right to abortion in the USA is a fragile thing, and that is why it is so important to vote pro-choice, especially in this Federal election year.

Women in other countries also need to ensure that they vote pro-choice to protect the right of women to control their own bodies. In many other countries around the world the situation is similar (although perhaps not so precarious): laws have been passed which allow legal abortions on technicalities (e.g. a requirement that a doctor or doctors sign a declaration that the woman would be psychologically damaged by going to a full term pregnancy, and there are many doctors who believe that any woman forced to carry an unwanted foetus to term would be psychologically damaged, therefore it is simple to get such a doctor’s signature). Are there any states, provinces or countries which have fully decriminalised abortion and allow a woman to make her own choice without having to have that choice monitored and judged by officials? There are still many jurisdictions which continue to criminalise abortion entirely.

I firmly believe that no woman should be forced to bear a child that she feels unable to want, and neither should any woman be forced to abort a child that she does want. Women are capable of making their own choices about the medical and surgical options they choose to use on their own bodies, and nobody else should constrain those choices to suit their purposes rather than the best interests of the pregnant woman.