Abortions are born of a society indifferent to vulnerable mothers

SO far, not one woman has voted against the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, even though it is inadequate. Not one woman has stood up for her fellow women and said “I will not call you a criminal if you seek to end your pregnancy in this State.”

Women who have abortions in this State should not be called criminals. Doctors who perform safe, early abortions in this country should not be called criminals. In Canada, it was Dr Henry Morgantaler’s defiance of the law, by providing abortions without the approval of the required committee of doctors, that decriminalised abortion.

In 1988, when Morgantaler appealed his sentence, the Supreme Court of Canada declared all of the country’s abortion law unconstitutional because it “asserts that a woman’s capacity to reproduce is to be subject, not to her own control, but to that of the State”. This was considered a breach of her right to security under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.