Sunday, 23rd May 2021 at 7:45 pm
Over the last few seasons, Call the Midwife has covered the topic of abortion across multiple storylines – and always with great thoughtfulness and care.
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We’ve seen the effects of desperate self-induced abortions (or attempted abortions), with skewers and drugs; we’ve seen the backstreet abortions, carried out in unsanitary conditions with unclean instruments. And we’ve also seen the safer (but still illegal) option of abortion secretly carried out by doctors at private clinics.
Alongside that, we have followed the stories of so many desperate women who feel they have no other choice but to terminate their pregnancies – whether that be because of poverty, or abuse, or because they are unmarried, or because they are just not ready to be mothers.
Hannah and her partner have just had a disastrous meeting with the obstetrician. Hannah knows that her pregnancy is not viable and, tortuously, decides that she cannot give birth to a dead baby. The next morning she tells her doctor she wants a termination. He stares at her and says, “well you know that’s not going to happen … not in this hospital”.
This is a scene from Three Families – a two-part BBC series set in 2013, which focuses on Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion policies. Told through the stories of three women, the show highlights a cold truth running through the history of UK abortion rights: that Northern Irish women have been, and continue to be largely excluded from access.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
A new requirement in the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 requires a practitioner who objects to abortion to refer the patient to a doctor who can help them.
The Health Professionals Alliance is fighting for a declaration that the new law interferes with the Bill of Rights Act.
Before Justice Rebecca Ellis, plaintiff Ian Bassett argued part of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 infringes on a health practitioners rights: Namely the rights to freedom of conscience without interference .
The Abortion Legislation Act states conscientious objections must be accommodated unless it risks providing unreasonable disruption .
Bassett told the courtroom practitioners may fear their job was in jeopardy if their employer considered them disruptive.