Saturday 18 October 2008

40 Women a Week


This is a pre-recorded posting, because I am actually be out and about in Glenrothes somewhere.


Right about now a symbolic 40 women will be wearing a t-shirt bearing the image to the left in a protest outside City Hall in Belfast. The reason for 40 is that is the number of women who currently wish to seek an abortion in Northern Ireland but have to travel to the mainland to do so.
They are protesting to have the law in Northern Ireland changed to bring it into line with the rest of the UK.
Let me lay a few things out straight. Should I personally, as I have in the past, face the question of a possibility that I may have fathered a child I would do all I could to make the choice that that child survives easier to be made. However, I know not everyone and every situation is going to look at the situation that way. Personally I would see myself as pro-life but I respect every woman's right to choose. It is all about choice and that i wholeheartedly support.
Being of a liberal mindset sometimes mean that you have to allow room to manoeuvre for a mind set that is not naturally you own. Which is why I hate the fact that so many from both sides what to make this situation so black and white when it is actually very grey. There should really be three camps, pro-choice, pro-life and somewhere in between where people are personally of one or the other persuasion but respect the right of the other camp to hold their views. In an ideal world that third camp would be full and the others empty, and doctors wouldn't be threatened and family planning clinics wouldn't be picketed and (often) young, scared mothers wouldn't be terrified of taking whatever action they wanted.
There is a petition to sign to support the law in Northern Ireland catching up with the 1967 Great Britain legislation. If you haven't already may I please ask that you consider signing it.

No comments:

Post a Comment