{"id":2786,"date":"2021-11-21T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2021-11-21T16:09:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T16:09:19","slug":"deconstructing-notions-of-male-bias-in-abortion-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=2786","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing notions of male bias in Abortion laws"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 8 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

TW: Abortion, and mentions of suicide and sexual assault. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere is the case of a perfectly healthy baby being sacrificed for the mother\u2019s convenience\u2026 For goodness sake, let us bring up our daughters with love and care enough to not get pregnant\u201d<\/em> (Jill Knight<\/a>, former Conservative MP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might surprise the reader to learn that there is still no absolute right to abortion in England and Wales. In fact, legislation criminalising it still exists by virtue of s58 and 59 Offences Against the Person Act 1861<\/a> (OAPA); an Act passed some 70 years before the achievement of women\u2019s right to vote on equal terms with men. Instead, it is the Abortion Act 1967<\/a> which carves a defence to OAPA, allowing abortion in a limited number of circumstances. Whilst this article does not seek to disregard or denigrate the successes of the Abortion Act in providing access to abortion, it argues that its clauses are largely predicated on assumptions of female irresponsibility and emotional instability. This will be explored using the Parliamentary debates during the Act\u2019s drafting which are indicative of the false constructions of women that underpin the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sally Sheldon<\/a> categorises the constructions of women within the Abortion Act into two categories; women as minors and women as victims. The first, she says, is the presentation of women as minors in terms of immaturity and immorality. Indeed, Jill Knight<\/a> MP calls abortion selfish in debates and suggests women terminate \u201csimply because it may be inconvenient for a year or so to its mother.\u201d Likewise, Mahon MP<\/a> contends woman will abort \u201caccording to her wishes or whims\u201d and is \u201cunwomanly\u201d for rejecting the natural outcome of sexual intercourse. The second of Sheldon\u2019s categories is women as victims, where they are portrayed as distraught with the worry of pregnancy, and if denied an abortion \u201cwould be in a state bordering on suicide\u201d (Lord Strange<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both constructions suggested by Sheldon trivialise a woman\u2019s decision-making skills and deny her any rational grounding. This can be largely contrasted to Kirkman\u2019s finding that less than 5% of women said they made a decision to abort rapidly, and over 10% said they had to consult with an experienced counselor. Not only does this dismiss Mahon\u2019s argument that women abort on their \u201cwishes and whims\u201d but also highlights the misconceptions inherent in abortion law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of particular concern is the absence of a clause allowing abortion in cases of pregnancy induced by rape. Originally, this was injected into the wording of the Bill but subsequently dropped for two reasons. Firstly, parliament claimed the Act\u2019s provisions would allow rape victims an abortion under the law as it stood. Secondly, and more significantly, was the belief that women cannot be trusted to tell the truth about rape. One MP suggested many rape charges \u201care quite unfounded and\u2026made for different motives.\u201d<\/a> Once again, we see the law\u2019s assertion of female irresponsibility and incapacity to make rational decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also important to consider the constructions of doctors under the current law. Perhaps the most striking clause of the Abortion Act is s1(1)<\/a> which requires two registered doctors to approve the termination before it can be performed. Whilst on its face, this appears harmless, it becomes problematic when we realise that at the time of the Act\u2019s drafting most, if not all, doctors were male. Indeed, doctors are consistently referred to as \u201che\u201d in parliamentary debates, with MP\u2019s calling GP\u2019s \u201cskilled men\u201d who should be applauded for \u201ckeep[ing] our homes and families right.\u201d<\/a> Furthermore, Sheldon calls doctors the \u201cepitome of maturity\u201d and \u201cresponsibility.\u201d In this sense, the doctor is perceived as a (male) voice of reasoning who is far better equipped to make decisions on the woman\u2019s behalf, despite never having met her before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This becomes more complex when s1(2)<\/a> is considered. The section allows doctors to take into account \u201cthe pregnant woman\u2019s actually or reasonably foreseeable environment\u201d and thus her whole lifestyle. This arguably goes beyond medical matters and allows doctors to make social decisions for the woman, something outside the scope of their powers. Unsurprisingly, calls for reform of this section have been made and amendments were tabled to the HFE Act 2008<\/a>. However, parliament failed to address this matter and have since made no plans to introduce a Bill specifically dealing with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article has argued that, through its false constructions of woman, the Abortion Act<\/a> creates its own female narrative which it seeks to regulate. Furthermore, the requirement that two doctors must certify abortion is grounded in the law\u2019s assumption that doctors, rather than women, are better equipped to decide whether an abortion is justified. In sum, UK abortion law is characterised by archaic concepts and is in desperate need of reform. Ultimately, the Act\u2019s greatest failure lies in its refusal to recognise abortion decisions as fundamentally belonging to the woman.<\/p>\n

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TW: Abortion, and mentions of suicide and sexual assault. \u201cHere is the case of a perfectly healthy baby being sacrificed for the mother\u2019s <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,28,6,66,67,12,30,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abortion","category-british","category-featured","category-gender","category-gender-2","category-latest","category-politics","category-womens-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}