THE CAMPAIGN Against Corrie started Parliament allowing more time for DAVID STEEL, Gerald Vaughan (Minister of Health) and Stan Orme (shadow health spokesperson) have all come out in favour of a restriction of the '67 Abortion Act to bring in an upper time limit of 24 weeks. Even the 'prochoicers* in the House of Commons divided on this issue.
The National Abortion Campaign, which over the past five years has built a massive campaign in defence of the '67 Act, is opposed to any restrictions on a woman's choose.
We have to step up the campaign against all compromises. There is a danger that the sense of relief if Corrie's Bill as a whole is rejected may blind us to the necessity of fighting any restriction to the 67 Act.
Choice NAC is the only section of the abortion movement which clearly stands restrictions on women's choice. It has plans for a Bill that really would embody a woman's right to choose - we should start campaigning for that kind of positive legislation as a counter to all talk of reducing time limits.
The National Abortion declaration of aims spells out the kind of things we are fighting for (as opposed to what we are fighting against): day-care abortion clinics, changes in the NHS, no time limits and so on. It explains NAC's positions and why it is vital that no compromises are accepted.
It is not just that Corrie must be stopped, nor simply that we must resist all attempts to reduce the time limits, but we have to take our campaign forward towards winning legislation for a woman's right to choose. The dynamism of the campaign that has been built up against Corrie should not be allowed to dissipate but be turned on to a more aggressive footing.
What are the steps towards achieving positive campaign? Initially 'women's right to choose' contingents on the International Women's Day and May demonstrations this year.
be holding its national conference. For the last few years the event has not been very well attended, but this year there are enormous possibilities to take the campaign forward.
Let's aim for a conference as big as in '76, with at least a thousand people there.
Women's groups. students, and community groups - all the people who have actively campaigned against Corrie -should be invited along to discuss and debate the way to build a mass campaign around NAC to win legislation for a women's right to choose.
The Labour Party and the TUC are already committed to 'free abortion on request' now we have to encourage them to turn words into action.
Socialist Challenge 21 February 1980 are right to for no Campaign's choice.' If the Labour Party were to pledge itself to positive legislation in its next manifesto then our fight would be taken forward considerably. It wouldn't guarantee that Labour government would actually introduce such legislation, but it would strengthen the hand of the pro-choice movement. this The Labour Party conference next autumn have still seems a long way off, but it is not too early to start putting down Day constituency Labour Parties and trade union branches calling the amendments to the '67 Act that do get through and for a manifesto commitment to a woman's right to choose.
The main focus for the fight for positive legislation will be the conference on this subject that has been called for the autumn. We should fight for regional TUC conferences on positive legislation as part of the build up to the autumn conference The Campaign Against holding a forum on 1 March to discuss the future of the fight against Corrie. CAC must obviously continue organising support against any restrictions to the '67 Act, explaining the importance of refusing all deals. broad forces that support CAC the role of NAC is continue position for no restrictions and to win people to the ongoing fight for a woman's right to looked unstoppable.
But now, eight months after the Bill first appeared in the Commons, success seems within our grasp. We haven't won yet - there are manoeuvres to win more time to discuss the Bill alongside talk of compromises from MPs on both sides of JUDE WATSON: "The coming months will make or break the mass campaign for women's the next NAC.
resolutions repeal of any strength to win on their own. labour movement will be build campaigns. dominated' trade unions.
Within the to press for its own facing the abortion movement.
what the options are.
Such and set up if In We want to win the masses of people who have campaigned against Corrie to the fight for positive legislation. We want them to join Within the broad abortion movement there will always be differences about how to win abortion rights. NAC, though led by women, itself. has many male supporters and members, and the campaign has emphasised taking the issue declaration into the labour movement. NAC thinks that the most likely road to success is through the joint action of the women's movement and the labour movement on the abortion issue.
Women alone are certainly fearless fighters for their rights, but they do not have the The politics behind such a strategy differs from that of some women who tried to storm Parliament on 8 February or those who seized the front of the demonstration on 28 October.
Not all the women who did these things saw it as a complete alternative strategy, but some sections do see direct confrontations with the police and spontaneous actions as the way to The same people often disagree with forging alliances with the male Fridays NAC thinks that direct actions should complement the ongoing mass campaign, and that they are the exact opposite of 'doing your earth, own thing' in a way which cuts across the campaign in an undemocratic and confusing there! the debate - but now is a good time to look ahead and examine the choices JUDE WATSON, a member of the National Abortion Campaign steering committee and of the IMG, discusses manner. Direct actions must be well planned and their timing decided in a democratic way or they end in unnecessary arrests, heavy fines and splits in the mass campaign.
spontaneous actions are alsc alienating for many women, especially those who may be on their very first political event who are prepared for physical confrontation with the police.
Many women who went to 'storm" Parliament on 8 February literally did not realise that the police would use force and violence to stop them getting in. We may think such violence is unjustified but it is how the police always behave — the women who led that escapade had a responsibility to warn the other woinen of what was likely to happen.
A further difference within the abortion campaign is over the role of illegal or 'selfhelp' abortion in fighting for a better law. Networks Some sections of the women's movement are calling for illegal abortion networks to be the Corrie Bill goes through. countries where abortion has been unavailable for years defying the law has proved useful in pressurising the state for abortion rights in law and practice.
Italy, the USA and France such networks have been used in this way, but Britain is in a different situation. Clandestine networks would be limited to women in the know' - probably white, middle class women in the women's movement. It would take years to establish a network with mass pressure and this should not be done at the expense of fighting for a law for all. However big it might become, such a network is not a solution in NAC, on the other hand, should organise a of doctors and nurses who are willing to break the law if the Bill is passed, and we should also be ready to defend any doctor or woman who is prosecuted for performing an illegal abortion.
But NAC must urge the women's and labour movements to campaign together for positive legislation. We must not end up with the women's movement organising illegal abortions and the labour movement organising The coming months will make or break the mass campaign for women's choice. We have to ensure that we take everyone who has campaigned against Corrie into a campaign for a positive law.
Finally, on the Corrie Bill front there is some bad news. It appears that a further three may become available for discussion of the Bill. But we are undaunted. Events will begin at Lincoln's Inn Fields at 6pm ever Friday until this Bill is wiped off the face of th Watch the press or ring NAC (01-278 0153) for details. But most important - be
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out with what looked like an impossible task. The Corrie Bill threatened to dismantle nearly all the gains of the '67 Abortion Act, and with a long session of
debate, and an even larger anti-abortion majority than usual in the Commons it
Conference In the next two or three months NAC will