THINK the record of this government in recognising that a ensitive subjecty(ie abortion) is a atter for individual conscience is mparalleled, boasted Barbara Castle about the last Labour administration from 1974-79. On 3 Mar a large number of Labour IPs will follow Barbara Castle's advice and, ignoring the votes of aree Labour Party conferences for woman's right to choose, either go into the lobby with the Tories nd vote for the Powell Bill or stay way frightened to CHow laces.
The reason for this unparalleled lisgrace is the free vote. When it comes to votes on abortion, The Powell Bill and the Gillick High Court ruling represent a change in tacanti-abortionists. Having been defeated on three successive occasions in parliamentary attacks on the 196" Abortion Act they have now turned their energies to the courts.
Victoria Gillick, mother of 10, took the DHSS to court — as a result doctors can no longer prescribe or give coniraceptive advice to the under-16s w thout parental consent. Gillick has already announced she does not want to stop there. She wants sex education banned in schools.
Enoch Powell Walils to research on the human embryo and give legal status to the foetus from the moment of conception Such protection has only been given in fascist countries since 1983 - in Southern : Ireland where abortion is completely 1llegal.
The debate in parliament clearly showed that Powell's aim is to outlaw abortion and some forms of contraception such as the coil and the morningafter pill.
At the second reading of Powell's Bill only 41 out of a total of 267 Labour MPs voted against this attack on the '67 ACL When the implications of Powell made clear basically, backdoor way of getting abortion outlawed by giving legal status to the no Labour MP could argue TOCLUS that he or she was not mandated to vote against it.
While the Labour Party needs to get a policy on Powell and the Warnock Report as quickly as possible, the ranks have already made their views clear: for a woman's right to choose.
Moral So why is it that the Labour Party in the House views abortion as a moral and not a class issue? Defining abortion as a matter of individual conscience allows an MP to ignore party policy if he or she disagrees with it personally. their This reflects a long tradition in the British labour movement which con siders that these issues are not properly the concern of the labour moyement. It lets the ruling class off the hook. the In every capitalist state the ruling womens rebrooucuve rights. The labour movement has every interest challenging fighting for women to have control of their bodies.
Freed from unwanted pregnancies, the justifications for paying women badly and depriving them of their rights WUIK will be lessened. dependence on men will be less if they can plan their children volvement in the labour movement will be much greater.
At each Labour Party conference where the issue of a free vote has been discussed, the trade union bureaucracy has blocked wiln une parliamentaly party against ending the free vote.
This is out of line with the expressed stop wishes of the ranks of the unions who have not only voted for abortion on request but also won TUC sponsorship for the anti-Corrie march in October 1979. Unions like NUPE Tobacco Workers, which have a high female membership played a key role in that.
It is because of the elitist, unaccountable nature of the parliamentary party and the trade union delegations to party conference that MPs can get away with treating abortion as a moral Issue trampling rights.
The working class is the only class in society that has the power to win the It's a struggle for abortion rights. This struggle involves a head-on challenge to the right of the ruling class to use women as reproducers and servicers of labour power.
It is vital at a time when unemployment is high and the ruling class wishes to throw back the gains of the abortion legislation of the 60s and 70s - to indivisions between rallies its rowell and unlick.
Since 1968, some women have had safe, legal abortions.
Yet abortion is still a criminal offence, and over 50 per cent of women are forced to go outside the NHS.
The last Labour Party manifesto failed to adequately represent established party policy on abortion despite an extensive section on women's rights The miners' strike showed the im- portance of having women involved in the struggle munities. Now every member, male and female, must return that support by putting on the pressure every neve 10 SLOD Gillick. Unions must that, policy on the Powell Bill, and how to win support for the pro-choice moveDisgrace - and their inhave to be brought out, and people's prejudices and fears about experimentation on embryos confronted. Above all inside the trade unions and the Labour Party, the argument against the free vote has to be taken on.
than women themselves or than Labour reproductive rights. That is simply not the true.
free vote must be ended. That is the only way to stop Powell and also the other anti-abortionists queueing up behind male that the lauvul forces arallls!
million to save jobs and comPowell discuss their The real issues behind this attack Labour MPs think they know better sexual and The unparalleled disgrace of the
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marty whip is not applied. The con- acience of male MPs is more impor- lant than the abortion tights of working class women.