Changes to UK abortion laws would stop prosecution after 24 weeks

9 comments

1. It’s about time we got rid of regressive laws that only serve to prevent women accessing essential healthcare.

2. I’m not an expert on this or anything so if someone disagrees with what I’m about to say the feel free to help me understand your position on this, but having an abortion at 24 weeks seems a bit excessive.

   If it is really early on I can understand and even support the whole “your body, your choice” and pro-choice thing, but 6 months in and you have to start considering the baby’s body and the baby’s choice, right?

   Like at that point I start to shift in the other direction and agree with the pro-life guys.

   I do think that women should have the choice about what happens to their body, but there needs to be a clearly defined limit where the baby is considered more than just a fetus in terms of rights, and if you cross that limit then I also do think that equates to murder. Only exception being if having the baby would be dangerous to the mothers life.

3. They need to tighten that shit up NOW.

   We’re on our own, and very vunerable to America’s intrests. And America’s intrests are really fuckin weird these days.

   Abortions need to be legalised. Because at the moment, with it still being technically illegal, its on shakey ground. By 2029, abortion laws should ne concrete and very hard to change, because god knows what Reform could do with all that American capital.

4. So what you’re saying is the UK is about to get even more lousy with far right americans and their masses of anti-abortion funding than it already is.

   I have no expectation this will actually come to pass, too many organisations that will spring out of nowhere to oppose it.

   If anything Reform are about to become the champions of the “british” anti abortion movement.

5. Have to say I’m not sure I agree with this, I’m very pro-abortion but I think every reasonable person agrees there is some point in a pregnancy where abortion is no longer morally justifiable.

   Its already legal to perform abortions after 24 weeks if its medically necessary.

   This law would make it so someone could theoretically perform an abortion on a 9 month old pregnancy without medical justification, which admittedly does feel very wrong.  

6. I get ending stigma and the second doctor stuff could in many cases make sense but guardrails are a thing for a reason. 40 percent of women in the us that have had an abortion have had more than 1 20 percent more than 2 so two doctors for irresponsible people has in some cases a valid purpose as does common sense around timing. 24 weeks is 5 months. I’m sorry but unless your life is in danger nobody should and I’m pretty sure nobody is having these ultra late term abortions and if there is one weird fuck out there that is having a 25 weeker for personal reasons she should be forced to term and the child put up for adoption.

   It would be one case every five years but why was that guardrail there to begin with unless it was purely to let women face death or prosecution if so I’m having this rant in the wrong place…..

7. And so we continue down the slippery slope. Currently, it’s legal to kill a fully formed baby in the womb at 9 months if it has down’s syndrome, and soon it will be if they have no abnormalities at all (as it currently is in 9 states in America).

8. Can anyone tell me what good it does the public to lock up a woman who had an illegal abortion after 24 weeks? What threat does she post to the public? And how do you know she did the abortion maliciously?

   Just because something isn’t “morally justifiable” doesn’t mean it deserves a sentence, cheating isn’t very morally good either, do we send people down for adultery?

   **Nobody** is going to perform a 9 month abortion, that’s called an induced pregnancy. No one is going to take out a child fully formed and fully capable of being independent from the mother’s body and kill it. There might be severe cases of deformation or complications etc where it just won’t survive anyway which makes abortion “the right thing” at very late stages, but that’s the medically necessary stuff we all already agree on. The horror show that people think up of with healthy babies age -0.1 seconds being deliberately murdered is not happening and will never happen.

   **Women don’t have late abortions on a whim**, if they do have one that late then there is almost always a good reason. One woman who got caught up in the law was because she mistakenly thought she was less than 24 weeks because she tracked it with her period. There could be women who were in abusive relationships and couldn’t access anything and couldn’t bear to have their abuser’s child, there could be women who just struggle in general with life or are even just busy and find it difficult to access the current services (IMO this could be tackled by making it available via GP and pharmacy plus online.), or they could just straight up be having a severe breakdown.

   Any woman who has a late term abortion likely needs support and help, not a prison sentence.

9. Slippery idea. 18 weeks is already a mostly formed human being. 24 weeks already is beyond the point babies have been born in this country. Gives Muslims more reason go abandon labour and make their own parties, gives reform ammunition.

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