Richard Boyd Barrett: Calls Abortion Criminalisation 'Disgrace'
Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit sets out his position on the Social Democrats Bill, arguing it is a modest step toward the review promised after the referendum and pledging his support. He condemns the three-day waiting period, the criminalisation of abortion and the continued need for women to travel abroad when faced with fatal fetal abnormality.
Support for legislative change
Richard Boyd Barrett says People Before Profit uphold a woman's right to choose and that the Social Democrats Bill moves the law closer to the review that was promised but not acted on by the government. He explains why his party will support the bill while urging further reform.
Access and criminalisation
Barrett describes the mandatory three-day waiting period as an insult that worsens access to termination and calls the criminalisation of abortion an absolute disgrace that must be removed from the statute book. He frames these measures as barriers to reproductive healthcare.
Fatal fetal abnormality and personal testimony
Barrett highlights the ongoing injustice of patients travelling to Britain for terminations in cases of fatal fetal abnormality. He recalls his own experience of losing a child to a fatal fetal abnormality and argues parents must be able to make choices here at home without being forced abroad.
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People Before Profit believe it is a woman's right to choose, trust women, to make choices about their own body, their own lives, their own futures, that's it. And anything less is not good enough as far as we are concerned. However, we are nonetheless, we understand the logic behind the Social Democrats Bill and it takes us at least a step forward from where we are in that it is essentially trying to legislate in line with the review that was promised when the referendum was passed, which the government have and which the government have refused to act on and therefore we are happy to support it. The three day waiting period is an insult, it is exacerbating the accessibility to termination that women in the country are having to endure. The criminalisation is an absolute disgrace. Associating women's right to have a termination to control their own bodies with some sort of criminal act is an absolute disgrace and should be struck from the books. And finally the fatal fetal abnormality issue. The fact that women and couples and so on are having to go when they have a wanted child but has a fatal fetal abnormality and are having to go to Britain for abortion is absolutely disgraceful. As somebody who myself and my ex-partner had a child and lost a child with a fatal fetal abnormality, we are strongly of the view that it is up to parents how they deal with that situation. If they feel they can't go through the trauma and they need a termination rather than face that trauma, that is absolutely their choice and it should happen here and the idea that people are being sent abroad still is an absolute disgrace. www.cdc.gov.uk
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