Stigma persists despite decriminalization

In the UK, there is continuing, yea, endless, blather about fetal viability and therefore abortion time limits.

This comes up every time there is a report on the survival of an extreme neonate. Here's some info on these births, aka "miracle babies." (Spoiler alert: only 1% have fully "able-bodied lives.")

But no matter.

They are talking about viability again, who sets the rules for abortion time limits, does UK need abortion law reform. Yada-yada.

Here's Clare Murphy, a director at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the UK equivalent of Planned Parenthood, with a radical notion.

Murphy believes that we need a reform of abortion law, but rather than shorten the time limit, suggests it would be more helpful to remove it entirely.

“In an ideal world we would do what Canada has done: take abortion out of criminal law altogether and regulate it like other aspects of women’s reproductive healthcare. Canada has no time limit on abortion – it hasn’t seen an increase in later abortions. In fact, the proportion is similar to that of the UK,” she explains.

Well, yeah. But those are just facts.

Then the columnist indulges in a little fantasy.

I suspect that in Canada, it’s easier to have a discussion about abortion. If I thought of it as an entirely medical matter, I wouldn’t be scared to mention it to my friends and I’m sure they’d feel more comfortable asking me for any support they needed. We can’t afford to stigmatise it when it could affect us all.

That suspicion would be wrong. Abortion is as stigmatized in Canada as in most other places.

The difference is that we have have no law on it.

But yeah, the rest of the world would do well to follow our lead on this.