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Humanism Abortion and
Women's Rights |
Northern Ireland is a highly patriarchal society. The leading figures
in politics, the professions and the judiciary are predominantly male,
while women are still generally deemed to be best suited as mothers and
wives. This second class status in a society which is part of the
United Kingdom at the end of the 20th century is truly astonishing and
must be a major cause for concern to Humanists.
Ulster's patriarchy stems from a fundamentalist religious outlook in
which women are regarded as secondary creations. Indeed, the one thing
that all traditional religions have in common is their treatment of
women as inferior, and in theocratic states this inferiority is
enshrined in legislation and social custom. In Northern Ireland, there
is not one but two reactionary religious forces, Calvinist
Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, and both are opposed to equal
rights for women. This opposition can be seen clearly on the issue of
abortion, where the denial to women of the right to control their
bodies reflects the general lack of control over their lives.
Abortion is still illegal in both parts
of Ireland. The Abortion Act of 1967, which applies in England,
Scotland and Wales, was not extended to Northern Ireland. The present
law in the province dates back to the 19th century and prohibits
abortion, except when it is necessary to save a woman's life. In
practice, abortions are performed in Northern Ireland only when there
is a serious risk to health or life.
If the medical profession refuses to perform an abortion on a woman,
she has three basic choices: make an expensive journey to England,
where she to pay privately for the operation; endure her unwanted
pregnancy; or have a backstreet abortion. Nearly 2,000 women annually
make the journey, possibly as many as 35,000 altogether since the 1967
act, to obtain a service which is legal in all the rest of Western
Europe with the exception of Ireland.
Arguments against abortion in this
country are usually hypocritical. They generally revolve around the
so‑called 'right to life'. A typical syllogism goes as follows: direct
killing of innocent life is morally wrong; a foetus is an innocent
life; therefore direct killing of a foetus is morally wrong.
First, 'innocent life' is generally restricted in the argument to
humans. This is surely unwarranted. If we defend the foetus as having a
life with a stronger claim on us than animal life, then we must be able
to point to morally relevant properties it has but which animals lack.
In point of fact, on any fair comparison of such characteristics, like
rationality, self-consciousness, awareness, pleasure and pain, and so
on, chickens, pigs and calves come out well ahead of the human foetus
at ANY stage of pregnancy. A fish or even a prawn shows more signs of
consciousness than a human foetus of less than three months.
Yet all these forms of life are killed throughout Ireland ‑ a country
with large agricultural and fishing sectors ~ with no protest from
anti‑abortionists, most of whom are quite happy to eat them regularly.
It is difficult to take seriously an ethic which vents so much anger at
abortions and yet remains silent at the widespread slaughter of far
more developed forms of life for the taste of their flesh or for
profit.
One counter to this argument is that a foetus is a potential human
being and human beings have more rights to life than other life forms.
But this will not do. Prince Charles is a potential King of England,
but he does not now have the rights of a king There is no reason why a
potential person, should have the rights of a real person. And
this is precisely why the rights of mother are more important than the
rights of the foetus.
It is also possible to make great play 'innocence'. It may allegedly be
morally justifiable to kill other human beings they are aggressive and
attack us, but this case they are not 'innocent’ whereas a foetus is
always innocent. This argument might seem convincing until we realise
that (1) innocence is quality of the living not of a collection cells,
and (2) those who kill other human being can always claim that their
victims were not entirely 'innocent.
The plea for the 'innocent' foetus is, in fact, a type of moral
blackmail which obscures more important moral rights, such as the
rights of women and children, the rights of suffering animals and the
rights of innocent victims of sectarian murders and beatings.
Humanists are concerned with the QUALITY of life, so in general we
believe it is right that some pregnancies should medically terminated
to avoid greater suffering and distress. Women are the best judges of
their own situation and the choice of abortion should be available
them, particularly where there is grave physical or psychological risk
or where the child would be born severely handicapped. Most Humanists
would therefore, call for the belated extension the 1967 Act to
Northern Ireland.
The number of women here with unwanted pregnancies has much to do with
the lack of childcare facilities, the inadequacy of sex education.,
poverty and unemployment. Equality of rights for women, advice on
sexual matters for your people, and the eradication of poverty are only
some of the issues on which Humanists have campaigned and will continue
to campaign, until we see a just fair, liberal and humane society.
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