The Battle for Trotskyism

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OCIAL ST PRE It now looks almost certain that John Corrie's anti-abortion bill will not receive its Third Reading this session.

The only chance of its gaining further time is if it comes up on July 4: but this will only be possible if other Private Members Bills. . are dropped.

However, Corrie's Bill is the fourth attempt to restrict the limited provision for abortion offered by the 1967 Act. And it is certain that it will not be the last.

Yet it is immediately obvious that the MPs who decide the fate of abortion legislation do not represent the wishes of the electorate.

Against restriction

A series of opinion polls have shown overwhelmingly that the majority of women and men in this country are opposed to any restriction of the existing Abortion Act, despite the fact that MPs voted 238-98 in favour of Corrie's Bill at its Second Reading.

Clearly the proportionately large numbers of Roman Catholic MPs who believe that women should be denied control of their own fertility, have vociferously supported Corrie.

However it is not only male MPs who have supported the Bill.

Thatcher-whom some liberal feminists supported during the election campaign as the representative of women's interests-led the anti-abortionists to the 'aye' lobby, supported by all but one of the I ory women.

Morality

The support for Corrie's Bill has to be seen primarily as an attempt to shore up the family unit and bourgeois morality.

It encourages the myth that a woman's true place is in the home, with her children, since the denial of abortion rights Against action: Callaghan Against abortion: Thatcher Against Corrie: Jo Richardson. PHOTO: Mark Rusher (IFL)

ABORTION KEEP IT LEGAL KEEP IT SAFE OPPOSE TH ORRIE BE Act said they would backstreet abortion if legal access to it.

The Corrie Act, if passed, would clearly be continuously broken on a massive scale. Also it would be totally unenforceable. (Before 1967, prosecutions backstreet abortionists depended almost entirely on the acts of police provocateurs: working women would not, in general, inform on abortionists who performed a vital, if unsafe. service).

Meanwhile. backstreet operators would be profiteering on women's suffering, and private clinics would gain a lucrative trade.

Significantly, the body which did not defeat Corrie was the Parliamentary Labour Party.

At the Second Reading, only 53 Labour MPs voted for Corrie, while Callaghan refused to allow a three-line whip on the PLP despite the fact that opposition to Corrie and free abortion on request is Labour Party policy.

Even trade union sponsored MPs failed to vote against Corrie-flouting TUC policy.

The Tories, rather Labour, recognised from the Forced to oppose Corrie proposals: Health Secretary Vaughan.

TUC Anti-Corrie demonstration seek a present NHS abortion service denied against the reactionary legislation and avoid a return to the backstreets.

Only strike action by the MPU/ASTMS and other public sector unions in defence of victimised doctors and health workers who continued to provide abortion facilities, and supporting action from the rest of the labour movement would be able to safeguard women's right to safe, free abortion.

However, such a campaign of direct action would not be mobilised easily.

It would mean putting demands on union leaders, and forcing them to act in defence of working class women.

Yet a start has already been made.

The fact that the TUC was pressurised into calling a demonstration against anti-abortion legislation. was itself a historic step and the campaign which has been carried into the labour moverent has strengthened this limited stand.

Next time an anti-abortion bill is tabled, the labour movement must put up a better fight.

But before that happens, we must mobilise the strength of