by Olivia Elsom

Created on: January 23, 2009

Surely common sense tells us that a woman has the right to choose. What are the alternatives if she doesn't? Do we force her to continue with a pregnancy against her wishes? To give birth to a baby that she doesn't want? And how exactly do we achieve that anyway? Women have been terminating pregnancies for thousands of years, long before any abortion act existed. Do the pro-lifers really imagine that doing away with legalised abortion will be the end of it? Of course it won't, it will just see the return of backstreet abortionists. Desperate women risking their lives by undergoing surgical procedures at the hands of unqualified quacks or, even worse, trying to do it themselves.

The trouble with any abortion debate is that people tend to give a knee-jerk response to questions like "should a woman have the right to choose abortion" without really thinking about the issue. If we say that a woman does not have the right to choose abortion, whether it's a legal abortion or not, then we are taking away her right to choose what she does with her own body and I would never support that position, not just because it's wrong but also because it's unrealistic and impractical.

Despite what some would have us believe, abortion is not an easy option. Leaving aside the emotional and psychological aspects, like any surgical procedure abortion carries risks. I have no doubt there will be some women who use abortion as a form of birth control, but they are a very small percentage of the overall number. It's not a decision that most women make lightly and there are a whole range of reasons why a woman may not want to continue with her pregnancy. Unfortunately, many of us are too keen to sit in moral judgement on others and accept or reject their reasons according to our own moral code. Consider the often heard statement "I'm against abortion unless it's for rape victims". The implication being that if a pregnancy results from consensual sex then the woman just has to accept the consequences and get on with it, but as long as she didn't want to have sex then she's morally absolved and abortion then becomes acceptable.

Also let's just take a moment to remind ourselves that no method of contraception is foolproof or one hundred percent effective. There is a tendency for people to assume that just because a woman is pregnant she hasn't been using contraception, or has not used it correctly at least (ah, there's that moral judgement again!), but this is not necessarily so in a surprisingly

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