Best Of

This discussion reminds me of the debates/arguments I had in the early days of my relationship with my now wife. She was at the time fiercely Catholic and anti-abortion.

It’s one of the nastiest political topics out there, I think because both sides seem to feel burning righteousness and anger on behalf of their cause. The right of a woman to have control over her own body and the right of a viable at or near-term baby to the chance of being born seem both to be irreconcilable absolutes. The one crumb of comfort is that we’re talking about something pretty rare in reality.

I think it’s regrettable it’s come up suddenly like this. I’m not entirely sure it needed to be legislated, if what’s really at stake is police over-zealously investigating vulnerable women. Could guidance have achieved this? I think the majority of the population feel the current term limits are about right.

But I also know it’s really none of my business. Because I’m a man, and we don’t have to deal with pregnancy or childbirth or being left carrying the baby of an abusive partner. Unless fathers were to be equally liable to prosecution as accessories in these cases, it remains an issue about women that should be settled by women.

Yeah blah centrist dad fucksake. You are a pathetic excuse. You have brains, use them

Take a stand: for once in your dismal little bourgeois life

The Gin taking hold it seems. A typically silly attempt to rabble rouse a l'American. A sensitive and difficult topic turned into a political football because that's what happens in the US.

Its Alf Garnett masquerading as an enfant terrible- the poison of the hard right in all it's crass nastiness.

And you know what? It won't work.

There’s no apostrophe in “its” when it’s possessive

Ok, I'm instinctively against this change (I like a workable fudge, compromise, imperfect world etc etc, shame to throw that away) but I think claiming Labour is politicising it is wrong - it suggests they are only doing this to skewer the Tories/Reform, which is obviously not the case given the issues it's going to cause them.

A blind spot for the right is they can't imagine lefties doing something a bit mad out of pure principle. I think this is an example, along with assisted dying etc etc. They are governing on instinct.

Which probably means they are doomed but there you are.

https://x.com/TheNewsAgents/status/1934853519900856573

Labour MP Stella Creasy - campaigning to change abortion law in Britain - says it's a pre-emptive move amid the global rise of the right-wing.

I'm a bit bemused about this aborting vote. It seems to have come out of nowhere.

Maybe I have such severe Trump Derangement Syndrome that I am not properly focussed on UK politics?

It's such a completely stupid thing to do as well, importing a completely toxic argument from the US into our politics. The question has been settled for decades and now it's not. The thought of someone aborting a full term pregnancy is absolutely abhorrent. Functionally there's no difference to between a term pregnancy and a 1 week old baby. I mean our first was born 10 days late and our second was 3 weeks early. It seems completely immoral that fully functioning babies can be killed and it carries no punishment.

I very rarely have opinions on these matters but this feels like end stage liberalism to me, effectively legalising the killing of functional babies is completely wrong and what was previously seen as a workable compromise between traditional views and liberal ones has now been smashed by Labour completely out of nowhere. People who are celebrating this have got something wrong with them in their heads. I can't imagine many things worse than decriminalisation of abortion past 26-30 weeks. Thousands of perfectly healthy and happy babies will be murdered and somehow this is a good thing for society?

There are moments where a person becomes less and less connected to the culture and country they are part of, I think this is one of those moments for me. A society which is happy to kill full term babies is a society that is sick. I'm not religious, I'm in favour of abortion under the previous rules but this is a step too far and the thought that people are celebrating the decision makes me wonder what has become of our culture.

Again - I am utterly bemused. Where did this vote come from? Usually when there is a vote of conscious about a tricky moral issue then we have months of newspaper debate and episodes of Coronation Street exploring the nuances.

This feels like a hijack.

But I confess I really don't know. Maybe I have just not paid attention?

That’s kind of my reaction too.

They should have dealt with this through guidance to the CPS

I'm a bit bemused about this aborting vote. It seems to have come out of nowhere.

Maybe I have such severe Trump Derangement Syndrome that I am not properly focussed on UK politics?

It's such a completely stupid thing to do as well, importing a completely toxic argument from the US into our politics. The question has been settled for decades and now it's not. The thought of someone aborting a full term pregnancy is absolutely abhorrent. Functionally there's no difference to between a term pregnancy and a 1 week old baby. I mean our first was born 10 days late and our second was 3 weeks early. It seems completely immoral that fully functioning babies can be killed and it carries no punishment.

I very rarely have opinions on these matters but this feels like end stage liberalism to me, effectively legalising the killing of functional babies is completely wrong and what was previously seen as a workable compromise between traditional views and liberal ones has now been smashed by Labour completely out of nowhere. People who are celebrating this have got something wrong with them in their heads. I can't imagine many things worse than decriminalisation of abortion past 26-30 weeks. Thousands of perfectly healthy and happy babies will be murdered and somehow this is a good thing for society?

There are moments where a person becomes less and less connected to the culture and country they are part of, I think this is one of those moments for me. A society which is happy to kill full term babies is a society that is sick. I'm not religious, I'm in favour of abortion under the previous rules but this is a step too far and the thought that people are celebrating the decision makes me wonder what has become of our culture.

Again - I am utterly bemused. Where did this vote come from? Usually when there is a vote of conscious about a tricky moral issue then we have months of newspaper debate and episodes of Coronation Street exploring the nuances.

This feels like a hijack.

But I confess I really don't know. Maybe I have just not paid attention?

The reaction on X to this new abortion law is total shock, horror and shame

Wow

Of course, X is not the UK or the world. But, hmm. This could pan out very badly for Labour

If the British Right are to benefit politically from the abortion issue - and I'm not convinced it's particularly fertile ground - then they'll need to work out a way of addressing the Boris factor. Otherwise it will appear to many as so much cant.

To be fair to Boris any abortions his partners or wives had were well before 24 weeks