Abortion: some messages can't be massaged

Redefining the 'right to choose'.

It's time to ditch the spin and tell the truth about why women have abortions, and what would happen if they were denied them.

More from the piece:

Pro-choice advocates know we must move on from the slogans of the past because social concerns have changed. The advance of reproductive technologies and fetal medicine has stimulated an interest in the development of life before birth that did not exist 30 years ago. In the 1970s, abortion was seen as an issue affecting a woman ('Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide'). Now public opinion is increasingly concerned with the fetus ('Does it feel pain? Does it have rights?'). In the 1970s, women's equality was an ambition to be fought for; now many believe it has been achieved. The language of the 'right to choose', which once seemed central to women's freedom, now makes many people uncomfortable.

We must address this discomfort. To do this we have to engage with contemporary concerns, and we can all agree that research that examines what alienates people from pro-choice perspectives is vital to do this. However, there is a danger that we become so concerned with 'branding' that we lose sight of what we stand for. We do ourselves no favours – and much fault – when, in the hope of framing abortion to make it acceptable to the widest constituency, we forget essential truths. One of these truths is that access to abortion underpins, and is essential to, women's equality.

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