The main issue here is the woman’s right to choose v religious patriarchs’ wish to impose their views on women; views based on pre-modern ideas about the creation of life.
The point is this. If abortion were banned, women would still seek it out, and the practice would be driven underground, just as it was in the past, with (usually poor) women enduring some of the most dangerous and barbaric medical practices imaginable, at the hands of charlatans and snake oil salespeople. Once again, it would become a cottage industry practised in back streets by the bad, mad and impecunious. Desirable? I don’t think so.
But let’s be clear, there are still far too many unwanted pregnancies, and the key to preventing many of them is education and contraception. With better education in schools and families, not least in some of the most staunch, severe and fundamental religious communities where contraception and sex are still taboo, women can grow to be confident and educated to take decisions which prevent unwanted pregnancy.
So, forget all the pompous piffle and frankly hypocritical comments about “ideological preference” from the ideologically motivated religious lobby. Instead, JI and others should consider how much their views are shared with fundamentalists of all kinds, especially Muslims, when it comes to basic issues around women’s rights, human rights, democracy and the death penalty. They’d be quite at home in Saudi Arabia; in fact I believe there are some cheap deals to Mecca, currently.
