The All Party Pro-Life Group in Parliament seeks to see both a reduction in unwanted pregnancy and the abortion rate. It is generally recognised that even with recent welcome falls, Britain still has the highest abortion rate of any western European democracy. The Group therefore seeks to bring the UK’s abortion rate down to the lowest level in Europe and eventually bring the practice of abortion on demand to an end. The Group affirms the major strides in women’s equality that have been achieved in recent times and supports the continued pursuit of the recognition of women’s innate equal dignity. The Group would however question whether society’s continued reliance on access to abortion can be consistent with women’s full equality when no woman would want to have the procedure.
In other words it is clear that the widespread practice of abortion reinforces the very cycle of inequality that women continue to face. Everything that has been achieved by the women’s movement to bring gender equality should and needs to be maintained. But if such achievements are in some way dependent on the continued recourse to a procedure that no women would actually want then can it truly be regarded as part of the realisation of women’s innate status of equal dignity?
