court action f Bishop Montefiore Birmingham was admitting defeat for his attempt to amend the Act through the House Lords: word change would have cut the time-limit for legal abortions from 28 to 24 weeks.
The case of the Oxford student s muganon brougnl the issue from the relative obscurity of the House of Lords to the front-pages of every tabloid.
The headlines descended below even their usual miserable gutter standards into the sewer. Readers WEIC sensationally told that the foetus was really a live baby with all its functions in tact, just waiting to be saved from 'death by a loving father.
The real object was a tar crv from mending the broken heart of an agonised father. It was a well thought out campaign to undermine the 1967 Abortion Law Reform Act.
If it had been successful the court action would have established in law that the foetus (in this case of 18-week pregnancy) was capable of being born alive; and to establish the precedent that a third party (in this case, the father) could take legal action on its behalf.
The litigation was financed by LIe 41Labortion rights organisaSPUC. The prosecuting lawyer, Gerard Wright, was founder member of 'The Association of Lawyers for the Defence of the Unborn' Wright first came into the public eye when he Name .
Address I enclose chec te/PO Action for E „nonar with the Post Cfrce Printed by East End Offset Ltd. (TU), London E2. acted on behalf of Victoria Gillick who sought to make it illegal for doctors to give contraceptive advice to the under 16s.
Wright gave the game away when he declared final judgement that the decision had been 'a setback for our campaign'.
The 'campaign' will HOL CU ANkY Last year a Norwegian man, Robert Hercz took a similar case to the Court after the Norwegian Supreme Court rejected his attempt to stop his roer coo ceng her pregnancy. The case still pending US a mother who gave birth under commercial surrogacy deal wallls keep the baby facing SUBSCRIBE Inland 24 Issues £10 48 Issues £20 ito Socialist Sond lo: sectoi Acuon o RO Box VA. Apodon NL-R, PO Box 50, London N1. in the form of a voluntary agreement which effectively prevents abortions after 24 weeks. The Department of Health has made it a condition of granting licences to clinics that they do not perform abortions arter uis unne. Statistic. reveal that there were just 31 such 'late' abortions in 1985.
'Late' abortions never of course the choice of the woman. They are social pressu of hostile pressure especially on young women who are overwhelmingly the largest group to have late aborBureaucratic delay LU1O is also responsible. Here the NHS is particularly at Taull — mere are lar lewe. "late' abortions in clinics.
The time-limits Colfpaign has nothing to do with the number of such abortions let alone an attempt to rule out further to 'early' abortions. It is a campaign aimed at restricting through legally defining the foetus to be a 'baby' the right of all WURCH decide for themselves.
Whether the attack takes the form of Powells bill on embryo research, Bishop Montefiore's. amendment to the Infant Life Preservation Act, or a father's dragging his 'loved one' through the courts in the midst of media much-raking, the object is the same And labour movement leaders should end their deafening silence and defend movement policy in defence of the democratic right of women to decide.
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