Must we really make the case for abortion rights all over again?

MANY OF US IN EUROPE watched the elections for president of the United States with great dread and foreboding--not only for the US but for the world in general and particularly the Middle East. However, our dread and foreboding did not come just from fears about world public order and the war in Iraq. There were many reasons. However, selfishly, I just wish to refer to one particular reason.

Roe v. Wade has been a very influential decision beyond the boundaries of the United States. It is an extremely important decision for those of us who believe that access to abortion should be a matter of right rather than merely a facility gifted to women by a legislative body. While the democratic ideals of arguing for and winning support for a position are to be lauded, where one is trying to establish access to abortion, as we are in Ireland and Portugal, establishing the legal right in the first instance requires the legislature to introduce legislation regulating and providing access.

Establishing the legal right to abortion is frequently a vital first step in the democratic process of ensuring that women have access to sale abortion. If President Bush packs the US Supreme Court so as to reverse the Roe v. Wade decision, it is not only residents of the US who will be affected.

Sexual and reproductive rights are not in a very healthy state in Europe at the moment. In June 2004, a campaign was started in England to ban abortions after 14 weeks unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary. This campaign was born out of images from ultrasound scans of 14-week and older fetuses published in the book, Watch Me Grow. On being asked to comment on calls for terminations carried out for social reasons to be banned after 12 weeks instead of the present 24, Tony Blair, prime minister of the United Kingdom said, "I have not had an opportunity myself to study in detail the evidence that has been provided. But I am sure that if the situation does change then it would be advisable for us to have another look at the whole question. If the scientific evidence has shifted then it is obviously sensible for us to take that into account. If we have proposals to put before the House we will put them." There was no reference to crisis pregnancy in Mr. Blair's response, nor any mention of women. One would have thought that in any discussion on access to abortion that the first point of reference would be the women involved. A few photographs can remove women from the debate.

In response, Polly Toynbee, a respected journalist with the Guardian newspaper, made these comments in her column: "Wearily, I am dusting down some old files long relegated to ancient history. Can it really be that the case for some basic women's rights has to be made all over again? On abortion, on nurseries and the right to combine work and motherhood, backlash is in the air--some of it from surprising quarters. So old battles need to be fought again, arguments re-made from first principles." (July 14, 2004)

In February 2004, seven Portuguese women, citizens of "old Europe," were round not guilty of having illegal abortions. But another court case followed soon afterwards. It seems unthinkable that women in Europe would be prosecuted for having or helping with abortions. But then again, perhaps it is not so surprising. It is only a few years since the Irish government held a referendum which would have placed draconian criminal legislation regulating abortion into the Irish Constitution with the aim of ensuring that the prohibition on abortion could not be changed by the legislature but only by a further constitutional referendum. Russia, in its first restrictions on abortion since it was legalized in 1955 has reduced the grounds on which an abortion is permissible from 13 to four. There are constitutional protections for the fetus in both Hungary and Albania, but abortion remains legal for the moment. Abortion is hot available in Poland, Malta, both Northern and the Republic of Ireland and is virtually unavailable in Portugal. (See Conscience Winter 2004-5 for the full story on this.) There are constant campaigns across the continent against later abortions, but no emphasis on early abortion and/or facilitating access to it.

Roe v. Wade was 30 years old in 2003. Its anniversary was celebrated on this side of the Atlantic as well as in the US. The principles laid down in Roe set the context within which abortion laws, not just in the US but also in Europe and elsewhere, were and are debated right up to this day. Access to abortion in both old and new Europe varies from Ireland where, theoretically there is a right to abortion when there is a real and substantial risk to a mother's life, but the reality is that there is no access at all, to the Netherlands, which has a very liberal policy. Women in France still face many obstacles in obtaining abortions, even though it has been legal there for 30 years. The same is true for women in many other European countries, where women have no "right" to an abortion per se, but rely on either doctors or bureaucrats to make the final decision as to whether or not to grant an abortion.

Access to abortion which is based on legislation can be changed by a wave of sympathy aroused by photographs or images of fetuses, as is now a possibility in Britain, after changes in government, or for other reasons. In days gone by, antiabortion campaigners ran around with fetuses in bottles. While the technology has changed, their aim remains the same. Access to abortion should be based on women's rights. So far, the European Court of Human Rights has declined to pronounce that there is a human right to abortion. However, it has also refused to declare that an unborn child is a person with a right to live. If it had so ruled, abortion laws across Europe would have been thrown into chaos.

It is extremely important that the principles laid down in Roe v. Wade are maintained and I say this from a self-interested European point of view. We have a saying here that is used to encourage somebody who sticks to their principles, particularly on behalf of and in the defense of others, "Keep the faith." Please do so, as what access there is to abortion in Europe will be seriously undermined by any reversal in Roe v. Wade.

Abortion Laws Under Threat in Europe

Countries in Europe where abortion is completely illegal: Andorra, Malta

Countries where abortion is only legal to save a woman's life: Ireland (In practice, there are no abortions in Ireland, and the last figures show that more than 6,500 women traveled to England or Wales to have an abortion in 2001), Monaco, San Marino

Countries where abortion is only legal to save a woman's physical health: Liechtenstein, Poland (where there are as many as 200,000 illegal abortions each year)

Countries where abortion is only legal to save a woman's life or her physical or mental health: Northern Ireland (In practice very few abortions take place in Northern Ireland, and the latest figures show that more than 1,500 traveled to England or Wales to have an abortion in 2001.)

In several countries recent or proposed changes have altered how abortions are provided:

* The government in Russia has narrowed the grounds for abortion between 12 and 22 weeks' gestation. Previously, women could access abortion services by citing one of 13 "social indicators," including divorce (or being single), poverty, refugee status, unemployment and poor housing. In August 2003, the government reduced the number of indicators to four: tape, imprisonment, the death or severe disability of the husband or a court ruling stripping a woman of her parental rights.

* As reported in the last issue of Conscience, while abortion in Portugal is technically legal in liberal circumstances, doctors are reluctant to perform abortions and parliament has yet to act on widespread demands for reform.

* In Poland, abortion is only legal in cases where the pregnancy threatens a woman's health, the fetus is seriously malformed or, up to 12 weeks' gestation, in cases of rape or incest. A bill to liberalize the law was tabled in parliament in September 2004 by the Democratic Left Alliance.

* In England and Wales there has been some parliamentary discussion about reducing the time limit for abortion from 24 weeks' gestation, but nothing concrete has occurred yet.

* In Slovakia a proposed change to the law allowing abortion up to 24 weeks' gestation was vetoed by the prime minister after a coalition partner, the Christian Democratic Movement, threatened to pull out of the government.

* The situation in Lithuania is covered on page 26.

Sources: International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (2004), Center for Reproductive Rights (2004), Reproductive Health Matters (2004) and BBC News Online (2002).

CATHERINE FORDE is a lawyer and chair of the Irish Family Planning Association.