A Statement on the Abortion ‘Decriminalisation’ Amendment
Recently, there has been media coverage about an amendment to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. The supposed aim of this bill is to prevent 'women' from being sent to jail for ending their own pregnancies. As a collective with core beliefs abolishing state systems of violence, we would normally welcome such acts. However, when looking through the aims of the amendment and its parameters, it's clear that it does not seek to change the harmful abortion regulations in place. In fact, they directly say "Voting in favour will not change the abortion time limits or provision in any way."
There will be no change to the 10-week telemedicine limit, nor to the 24-week abortion limit, nor to the need for two doctors to sign off on your abortion, and you would still need to fit one of the 4 criteria in order to have a legal abortion. Furthermore, “Anybody, including a medical professional, who assisted a woman in obtaining an abortion outside the law would be liable for prosecution.” This makes it clear to anyone that this amendment is not looking to decriminalise abortion, but to allow it only for a selection of people.
Globally, there have been no successful attempts to decriminalise abortion that have not also included providers and those who support abortions. We would be remiss to ignore the learnings from our siblings across the world who have achieved what the British state have been unable to do since the 1967 act. This becomes even more insidious when we pay attention to the language used. Throughout the amendment, and in statements and articles published by the people and organisations backing it we notice “woman“ is used throughout.
Considering the recent development in the UK where the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law", the intentions of the abortion decriminalisation amendment seem to become even more selective than it presents itself. This starts to make even more sense when looking at who brought forward this amendment; Welsh Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who has known connections and links to 'gender critical' groups and individuals.
We believe that this will further negatively impact trans experiences of abortion in the healthcare system, becoming even more exclusionary. Trans rights are intrinsically linked to all rights around our bodies and personhood, and divorcing ourselves from trans people and rights is morally reprehensible, and historically has only ever harmed us all further. We at Ad’iyah Collective can only support full decriminalisation of abortion, as we know that reform often legitimises privileged access to life essential services, and becomes even more impossible to change for decades to come, often beyond our lifetimes. This is unacceptable to us.
Abortion is a natural human process that has been practiced free and unbound for centuries and millennia, until imperialist and colonial forces regulated and enforced access to abortion for means of repression and subjugation. Any legal change that does not seek to completely return abortion care and practice back to us is another form of capitalist co-optation and control.
Keeping abortion still within legal parameters means any changes are functionally not looking to decriminalise, despite the label they have slapped onto it, and we cannot support this amendment, as it is not a true decriminalisation of abortion, and it seeks to improve the rights for some at the expense of others which we are not willing to cosign.
Radical change remains the only safe option available to us.
