Whilst perusing yesterdays online Guardian, (ohh, I'm soo down with the kids, me!). One of their lead stories caught my eye. If you haven't read it, then it's probably enough for you to know that the extremist anti-abortion movement has now touched down on these shores. Now I understand that this is an inflamatory issue but I, for one, find this development very sinister. I've personally never had an abortion but I would defend to the death a womans right to have one, if only because the alternatives to legalised abortion are too hideous to contemplate. I don't think you need to have watched Alfie (the Michael Caine one, haven't seen the one with Smarmy Law) or Vera whatever it was called to work this one out yourself.
What pro-lifers fail to understand (and never seem to mention) is that these decisions are never taken lightly, when was the last time you spoke to a woman who gaily mentions her abortion as if it were a barrel of laughs? Not to mention the thousands of unloved (and probably neglected) children who would be born, should this bunch of misanthropists get their way.
I realise that the pictures of foetuses they show are disturbing and rightly so. But I'm convinced that the aim of this far-right movement is to keep women in line and this is just another way to punish females for achieving some semblance of equality. Why else would these groups issue death threats and harass abortion clinic workers and doctors. Perhaps it's because in their eyes, "life is sacred". Yeah, I'm still trying to work out the complexities of that one, aswell.
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- http://suzeemoon.friendpages.com/
- 2006-03-29 @ 00:09:40
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- 2006-04-03 @ 20:32:16
Sorry I've been tardy about replying, thanks for the comments. Glad you left them otherwise I wouldn't have discovered your fascinating blog. Very thought provoking, you'd make a good guardian reader. BTW have read Ghost Children, very good.
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- http://suzeemoon.friendpages.com/
- 2006-04-05 @ 19:56:00
Wow! Thanks for your positive reaction to my blog and I take the Guardian reader comment as a compliment. I'm also delighted to be communicating with someone else who's read 'Ghost Children'.
More depressing was today's Woman's Hour and the effect of the changes in Poland on abortion.
Cheers,
Suzee
xx
suzeemoon
It's worrying isn't it? Quite the best thing I've ever read around abortion, unwanted children, childcruelty and how complex it all is, is a novel by Sue Townsend. It's called 'Ghost children' and if I had my way it would be required reading for all social workers.