because we wanted to have more information about what they really felt on this.
But when I tried to reintroduce the question, Jack Dromey actually prevented me from speaking. That was where the trouble started. MK: The next meeting was almost immediately afterwards, at 7 o'clock on the Friday evening, with NICRA - the Northern Ireland Civil troops on the streets. We asked them - did they think the soldiers were there to protect them? They said no, that they were there to harass them. We asked them - did they think the Army could ever become a peace-keeping force? Generally, the reaction was fairly unprintable - people didn't believe the Army could ever be a peace-keeping force.
Dear Mrs Hesmondhalgh (Amendment) Bill.
pendent judgments.
porters about the need to prevent abuses in the private sector the private sector.
abortion set out in the present Act.
makes the following points on this provision:
tors who are familiar with the present law;
ed recourse to the private sector;
street abortionist.
tioners, and Mr White's Bill would not change this situation.
ests of the patient.
Health Service in this field.
of feeling.
Committee's report with great interest. (Printed with permission of the recipient:)
The Prime Minister aas asked me to thank you for your letter of 20 June which you brought to No. 10, about Mr James White's Abortion Like its predecessors, this Government believes that the issues in the sensitive area of human responsibility like abortion must be decided by individual Members of Parliament on a free vote exercising their own indeHowever, the Government shares the concern of Mr White and his supone of the purposes of his Bill. The Minister of State (Health), Dr. David Owen, has already made it clear that on this point the Government agrees with the sponsors of the Bill and are ready to consider legislation; he has, indeed, already taken action to strengtnen the controls to prevent abuse in The Prime Minister nevertheless agrees with the Ministers responsible for health services that some of the other provisions of the Bill require close examination, among them the proposal to amend the grounds for Officials of the Department of Health and Social Security recently gave evidence to the Select Committee which is considering the Bill, and the Department's Memorandum of Evidence that it is likely to create considerable uncertainty in the minds of doc• that it would increase for the individual doctor the possibility of his judgement being challenged in the courts, and it is likely to increase the number of doctors in the NHS who are reluctant to recommend or carry out termination, thus making it more difficult for women who meet the criteria of the Act to have their pregnancy terminated within - that the willingness of doctors to recommend and carry out terminations privately is likely to continue with the result that there could be incresthat there will be a risk that some of the less well off, less sophisticated women refused terminations within the NHS would seek what the Lane Committee described as, 'the squalid and dangerous help of the backThe Prime Minister accepts the force of these criticisms, though he does not agree with those who argue that a woman should be able to demand abortion as a right. Under the present Act the decision on whether an abortion should be performed is taken by two registered medical practiment believes that doctors are the right people to make the decision, and that a doctor should not be required to perform or even recommend an abortion against his own clinical judgement as to what is in the best interAs you point out, a number of people have recently argued that abortion should be restricted to the National Health Service. While recognising the attractiveness of this suggestion, the Ministers responsible for the National Health Service believe that it could work to the detriment of women seeking abortions. Doctors exercising their independent judgement in the cases which are presented to them interpret the requirements of the Abortion Act in different ways. The existence of the private sector ensures that a woman has an alternative source of help and guidance available. It is desirable that the National Health Service should provide a uniform level of abortion services in all parts of the country, and the Ministers responsible are working to bring this about. Nevertheless, they consider that the private sector is at present a valuable adjunct to the National The Prime Minister recognises opposition to Mr White's Bill among some members of the public appears to be growing. No doubt the Select Committee which is receiving evidence from professional bodies, interested organisations and members of the public will also be aware of the strength The Prime Minister, and the Government as a whole, awaits the which is of women to choose.
The line is clear. The MPs an abortion she will not have the choice. Instead two doctors will course a woman is entitled to get it is only she who should decide whether she wants a child or not.
The GovernWing class living standards.
MISERY mean increasing misery. Squalid children will increase.
trophic social effects on working women's lives. red weekly 17 july 1975 What Wilson's letter shows is that he is violently opposed to the right where males are in absolute majority fee to a consultant.
will decide. When a woman needs take the decision on her behalf. Of the doctor's medical opinions, but Wilson's reactionary position takes on particularly dangerous overtones given the present situation. Poverty and unemployment are growing inside the working class. The Healey prop osals mean further attacks on workFor millions of people this will conditions, deprivation, and absolute shortages of money to make ends meet have devastating effects on the relationships between men and women. Wife-beating and cruelty to The haunting fear of another unwanted child in these conditions will plague women.
The same cynics who talk about the need for a 'sensitive approach on abortion callously impose measures which will have the most catas- is 'murder".
Of course Mr Wilson is not completely against abortion. He defends the private sector, saying 'that a woman has an alternative source of help and guidance available That is true - providing that she has monOpposition to the James White Abortion (Amendment) Bill has grown at a rapid and impressive pace in recent weeks. As the opposition has swelled some people in the pro-abortion movement have begun to talk confidently about the Bill being ditched. Harold Wilson's letter should dispel any premature illusions in that direction. Apart form some amendments — mainly as a result of protests from doctors - the Government is quite clearly sympathetic to the White Bill.
Key. But the people who most need abortion on social grounds are the very people who cannot afford to go to Harley Street or pay some fat tee POTENTIAL The 21 June demonstration with its 25,000 participants showed the enormous potential and support that exists inside the women's movement and the working class to defeat the White Bill. Now the campaign has to be extended. But the way to extend the campaign is not by reliance on the MPs. It is by winning trade union branches, trades councils and all organisations of the labour movement to support Free Abortion on Demand on the NHS That means tnat organisations class. like the National Abortion Campaign must send speakers into the unions.
It means organising action committees as the pro-abortionists have done in the Hammersmith Hospital John Ryman, Labour MP tor Blyth, addressed a heckling audience of 60 at a meeting protesting the views that Ryman is best known for - his commitment to defend the NHS and vote against any public spending cuts, his support for the withdrawal of troops from Ireland, or even his opposition to the Healey measures. testers - from the women's movement and left groups - were challenging his decision to appear on the platform at a meeting called by Life (the anti-abortion group with strong ties to the Catholic Church). Ryman's view, like that of Life, is that abortion Although the organisers of the meeting came armed with their usual distorted filt -slide shows with photographs of bins filled with foetuses, glossy literature, etc. -they failed to use the meeting to instill the audience with this rubbish. Instead the debate centred on the concern of the protesters - how could anyone supposedly committed to fighting for a socialist society, one in which women will be able, along with other members of the society, to play a full and creative role, publicly speak against abortion? Women will never be in a position to fight for their rights - let alone plan their lives in a way which leaves all opportunities open to them - if they are not free to determine when and if thev wish to have children. in London. They have arranged departmental meetings and are trying to get each department to elect a delegate to the Campaign CommitIn consultation with the local NAC they have organised a picket of the hospital and demanded that consultants who are anti-abortionists should be removed from taking any decisions about abortion. Such a campaign can be effectively followed up in other areas.
CLASS ACTION The pro-abortion campaign can defeat the White Amendments but the way forward lies in its ability to organise action inside the working Without that the Bill will pass and the misery of the back-street abortion will once more be joined to the misery of unemployment and poverty.
Jane Groves • natner, the oro
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RED WEEKLY takes a look at Harold Wilson's letter to Sally Hesmondhalgh who had written to the Prime Minister on behalf of the 21st June NAC demonstration