May 03 - Choice Gibraltar Disappointed With Abortion Bill
Choice Gibraltar says it is disappointed with the Abortion bill presented by the Government.
A statement from Choice Gibraltar follows below:
Despite extensive arguments and recommendations, including scientific facts and references to recent international human rights declarations, from several pro-choice groups, the command paper was barely amended and the bill really does not go far enough.
The opportunity to introduce progressive and forward thinking legislation, that won’t need to be revised in a few short years, is passing us by. Political expediency has been put before the best advice provided by local and international experts, medical professionals and the needs of our community. Once again women and their reproductive rights have been treated as second class citizens.
Instead we will be stuck with what is already a more than 50 year old piece of legislation. Admittedly, a step in the right direction, but as the anti-choice movement helpfully highlighted in their press release of the 2/5/19 a retrograde step.
Not only do they state that “The proposed draft bill is almost a duplication of the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act” but they also refer to the (unspecified) 1959 UN Declaration; that’s 60 (sixty) years ago. They completely ignore recent declarations by the UN and their sister organisations WHO (World Health Organisation), CEDAW, and other international entities that categorically state that abortion is necessary for the rights, safety and good of women. The anti-choice movement, therefore, is stuck in the past.
Many, if not most, of their supporters would prefer to turn the clocks back to a time when there was no marriage equality for homosexuals (in fact, when homosexuality was a capital offence), no divorce, no children out of wedlock or when women were not afforded the right to vote or be involved in the public sphere. A time when a woman’s place was in the home. Making babies.
Society has changed drastically since then. Decriminalisation and protection of real persons should be our priority now and not embryos. Not all cells matter. Most, 81%,(as per the 2016 England and Wales National statistics), autonomous informed terminations in England and Wales occur in the first 10 weeks when the embryo is but a collection of cells.
There is no “heartbeat” as the anti-choice wilfully misrepresent at 18 to 22 days after conception. Gynaecologists describe this as ‘throbbing’ since the heart and circulatory system are at an extremely early stage of development. But don’t let facts get in the way of their ultimate goal to subjugate and reduce women to mere vessels. No one is forcing anyone into abortions but we say, let’s allow the people who find themselves in these difficult positions, of having a safe, decriminalised choice in a world that is not black and white.
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