When I was 23, I had an abortion. It was March 2009 - the same year that I was first elected as a Green Party councillor - and I wasn’t ready to settle down and start a family. I’d been fitted with the usually reliable copper coil so even my GP was surprised when I turned up at her door looking for help.
There I was, in Brighton, a place I’d moved to six months previously, miles away from my family in Liverpool, faced with the prospect of having a child with my partner of four years, when I felt little more than one myself.
I was lucky though: as soon as I realised that I was pregnant, I was able to do something about it. At seven weeks, I went to my GP to ask for an abortion and two weeks later, I was having the procedure at a local BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service) clinic. Once I’d jumped through the hoops of speaking to two doctors, all I had to do was take a pill in the morning and a pessary in the evening. It wasn’t pleasant, but it least it was over quickly.
Had I gone through with my pregnancy, I’d now have a 10-year-old and my life would be drastically different. Despite our four year commitment, my relationship broke down pretty soon after having my abortion. Had I not gone ahead with it, I’d probably have been a single parent living at the other end of the country from my hometown. I wouldn’t have been in a position to put myself forward to be a local councillor, which was the beginning of my career in politics.
As a mum of a toddler now, I know how challenging and exhausting it is having a little one and I know that I personally wouldn’t have been able to cope very well with the intensity of it back then. Some people make excellent young parents, and for some people their twenties is just not the right time to make that kind of commitment. I am proud of my younger self for being able to recognise that and so grateful that I had the opportunity to make the right decision for myself.
Women who choose to have an abortion are sure they don’t want to have a baby. Making it illegal won’t change that certainty
We’re so fortunate in the UK that most women can make those decisions quickly - and even if the pregnancy is discovered later on, we have a system in place that ensures we get safe treatment. But that’s definitely not the case for refugees or asylum seekers here in the UK and it’s also no the case in other countries around the world - or indeed, across Europe.
The NHS announced in 2017 the introduction of new measures requiring hospitals to check the immigration status of patients before providing most kinds of care - including women seeking pregnancy terminations at the same time as asylum. This is appalling. These are among some of the most vulnerable women in our country and they should have the same equal access to services, including abortion, as UK nationals do.
From the end of next month, Northern Irish women will no longer be forced to head to Scotland, Wales or England if they don’t want to continue their pregnancies, as it will be legal to have abortions there for the first time in history. Whereas, in Malta it is still illegal to have abortions and abortions aren’t technically legal even in Germany, with gynaecologists risking imprisonment if they reveal their methods.
In the US, family-planning centres are being shut down at an alarming rate by the Trump administration, which has also cut its funding to clinics in developing countries. Only last month, a judge (mercifully) put a pause on a new Missouri law that bans abortions at or after eight weeks of pregnancy. Many women don’t even know they’re pregnant at six weeks - making that eight-week cut-off almost impossible to meet.
Women who choose to have an abortion are sure they don’t want to have a baby. Making it illegal won’t change that certainty. That means some women will be forced into unsafe abortions in their own country or they’ll have to travel to get one, risking their jobs and their family relationships and often at great expense. These ultra-conservative, misogynistic governments have to wake up to the fact that this kind of thing is happening - no form of contraception is 100% safe and it’s unrealistic to think that people are going to completely abstain from having penetrative, vaginal sex.
In Poland - where abortion is illegal except in cases of rape, potential maternal death or irreparable fetal damage - only 2% of women use the pill or a coil; the vast majority have sex without proper contraception, using instead the withdrawal and rhythm methods. In many countries, people don’t have access to contraception and even when they do, it’s not 100% effective so women are going to have unwanted pregnancies (and that’s before taking into consideration cases of rape and sexual abuse). It’s wrong that we shouldn’t be offered all medically available choices. Women should be able to be in complete control of their bodies and their futures.
Leaders like Trump, Bolsonaro and Putin have normalised the right-wing rhetoric that has made attacks against minorities and women mainstream
According to the European Union Agency of Fundamental Rights, EU countries differ wildly in the age at which abortions are legal. Countries like Portugal are more liberal (a 15-year-old can have an abortion without parental consent) than next-door-neighbour Spain (18-years-old), while the UK, France and Austria all say it depends on the maturity of the woman concerned.
While the EU can’t directly instruct countries on the kinds of abortion laws they have in place, it is well-placed to pressure Member States to provide free and safe options.
And that’s why I’m part of the All Of Us campaign, the pro-choice MEP cross party network in the European Parliament. We’re calling on the EU and member states to firmly condemn repressive regimes, laws and policies that undermine women’s sexual and reproductive rights as having no place in 21st-century Europe.
We’re pushing for more resources to be invested in initiatives to change harmful social norms while providing strong political and financial support to women’s rights groups and human rights defenders – both within the EU and around the globe. And we want to see a significant increase in the amount of funding that goes into access to family planning and safe and legal abortions without discrimination – closing the financial gap left by the USA.
Leaders like Trump, Bolsonaro and Putin have normalised the right-wing rhetoric that has made attacks against minorities and women mainstream – including the eradication of women’s health and reproductive rights. Inevitably, a regime that attacks LGBTQI+ communities and spews racial hatred will clamp down on freedoms afforded to women as well.
Our fight must encompass provisions for women’s reproductive rights, enshrining the fundamental right to safe, judgement-free health-care at no direct cost to the user.
Tomorrow, is International Safe Abortion day, a day dedicated to campaigning for safe access to reproductive healthcare for women all around the world.
READ MORE: It's national contraception day, so let's talk about the morning-after pill