Pregnant silence

Brian Sewell once wrote an article about abortion headlined: ‘Women, the killers in our midst.’ He got an awful lot of flak for it, which he took in his stride. He came to mind during the screening of Abortion On Trial, the documentary hosted by Anne Robinson and screened this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act. In it, one of the participants described abortion as murder. ‘Are nine of us here… murderers?’ asked Mrs Robinson with a flourish, to which the only tactful answer was no, of course not. Brian would unhesitatingly have said yes.

Abortion is one of those issues about which dissent is not normally socially permissible right now; see what happened to Jacob Rees-Mogg. You can say it’s a difficult decision but you must, to avoid online lynching, say it is the woman’s right to choose and that the shame and stigma associated with abortion are incongruous, a result of women not sharing their abortion experiences. Those who disagree, as two of the nine participants in the documentary did, are subjected to the argument that ends all argument: think what you like, but don’t go imposing your views on me and my body. Or, more concretely, as one of the women participants said to a man who wanted to subject every abortion to a quasi judicial review; ‘It’s my vagina that this enormous thing is coming out of.’ No arguing with that, eh?

Well, actually, you can, though it’s obviously awkward when one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. You don’t call your friends killers, do you? A fair number of my friends have had abortions, and I feel for them. Another friend is a consultant who signs off abortions — and has no illusions that they come within the letter of the 1967 law.