Timid reform sparks backlash

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20,000 Spanish women come to Britain each year for abor- reforms and a demonstration was held in Madrid last week. tions. Abortion in Spain is at present illegal with prison sen- Surveys have been commissioned on what women actually tences of 10 years not uncommon for both the women want themselves. The only support inside Parliament for the having abortions and those who perform or collaborate in feminists and pro-abortion groups demanding more, has come from Communist Party representatives, yet they too think Amid a huge backlash from the Church, the Socialist Party has introduced a law, going through the Spanish The Socialist Party have not yet made clear how they Parliament at the moment, which would decrimiralise think their reform should be carried out - namely how it is abortions in three cases: for a woman who is raped, for a going to be paid for, which suggests that they think that woman likely to undergo grave risk if she continued with the women should pay for their abortions themselves. pregnancy and in the case of foetal deformity. Abortions can be got in Spain, as anywhere else in the An abortion under these headings could still only be world, if you have enough money - the going rate is over carried out with the permission of two doctors and a gynae- £300 - that's more than the fare from Spain to Britain and cologist before 12 weeks. It is estimated that this would back including the money Spanish women have to pay here provide abortions for around 5% of the women who want Predictably the Church has reacted virulently against any Ihis retorm was promisea in the sp election manitesto, reform, with pastoral letters, screams of 'murder' , and though it tails tar short of the 19/y manitesto promise of bishops hurling threats of condemnation to eternal hell on abortions for all women who want them.

There are many abortion pro-choice groups in Spain who Reforms, however limited, are always welcome. But this have been campaigning for reforms for years, who have been law - despite the furore - will hardly make any impression disappointed by the limited reform of the Gonzalez govern- "Many pro-choice groups have been disappointed" ment. Campaigns have been launched demanding better them. them.

7 14 15 22 Monday 16 23 Wednesday 2 9 17 24 3 10 18 25 6 13 Sunday SPARTACIST Truth Kit -a bo-page analysis by John Workers Socialist lee the Workerg fl plus 25p postage from WSL, PO Box 135, London NI ODD. BAN Plastic Bullets: a labour movement delegate conference. Saturday February 26, from 1lam at UMIST, Barnes Wallis Building, Sackville St, Manchester 1. Sponsors include Labour Committee on Ireland. Credentials for labour movement delegates £3 from Plastic Bullets Conference, Bnx 15, 164-6 Hanging Ditch, Manchester M3 4BN.

WOMEN, Immigration and Nationality: meeting to discuss our fature as a campaign. Sunday March 13, 1:30 to 4.30pm, County Hall, London SEI. All women welcome. Creche on premises.

NOTTINGHAM Campaign Against Rayner conference: Saturday February 19, 10.30 to 4.30, at Nottingham Centre for the Unemthere ought to be a 12-week limit. to get an abortion.

the heads of all socialists.

on the vast majority of Spanish women.

ployed, Hounds Gate. Creche and lunch available. Morning includes speakers from CPSA NEC and Child Poverty Action Group, and a Labour MP; afternoon workshops On ESSP, job centres/ethnic monitoring, new supplementary benefit legislation.

Open to all unemployed people and delegates from trade union and labour movement organisations.

LABOUR democracy and local government: day conference for District Labour Parties, Saturday March 26, 10.30 to 4.30, at Manchester Poly Students' Union. Sponsored by Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester DLPs. Contact: Frances Done, Manchester City Labour Party, Hulme Labour Club, 1 Stoneylow Close, Manchester M15 Jo Thwaites GAY LPYS meeting. Sunlay February 27, 0pm, at 'Gay's the Word' bookshop, 66 Marchmont St, London WC1. Nearest tube, Russell Square. All LPYS members and non-members welcome GAY YOUTH Movement: lobby of Parliament, February 14, 5pm at the House of Commons. Young lesbians and gay men are urged to attend.

EL SALVADOR Solidarity Campaign: Labour Movement conference, Saturday May 14, 10am-5pm, County Hall, London SEI. Credentials f2 from ESSC, 29 Islington Park St, London N1. LABOUK CND national conference: Saturday Fehruary 19. West Midlands C'ounty Hall, Lancaster Cireus; Birmingham. »r. Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine public meeting:

THE FIGHT FOR PALESTINE Speakers: Tariq Ali, Ro Brown MP (Leith), Moshe Machover, speakers from Women for Palestine and Lebanese National Movement.

Wednesday February 8pm at County Hall, London SE1.

LABOUR Committee on Ireland: annual general meeting 1983 will be on March 26. Resolutions to be in by February 27. There will bean extended.meet; ing of the LCI National Council on January 22.

LABOUR Against the Witch-hunt National Council meeting.

Saturday February 12 1pm to 6pm, County Hall, London SE1. AIl CLPs affiliated to LAW should send delegates. Doubly important because of th NEC's definite decision to start proceedings against Militant.

Sheffield Labour movement conference on Ireland. Satur day March 19, Sheffield University Students' Union, 9.30 to 4.30. Sponsored by Sheffield Trades Council, Sheffield District Labour Party and Sheftield LCI, . notify the parents of women under 18 who are given prescriptions for contraceptives. Exceptions are allowed only where the notification might pruvoke violence at the hands of the woman's parents.

The regulations were brought in by Reagan's 'Health and Human Services' Secretary Richard Schweiker as a parting kick to American wome before heading off to a well-paid job in private industry.

But Schweiker's replacement - a woman - appears set to endorse the new rules, despite the fact that before her appointment, as a member of Congress she twic joined with fellow Congresswomen to sign letters to Reagan opposing the idea!

The regulations are opposed by a strong lobby, including the American Public Healti Association, and civil liberties groups who point out that the instructions discriminate against teenage women, since young men need no prescriptions for contraceptives, and do not face the danger of pregnancy.

But Reagan, whose candidacy was backed by the hidebound "moral" reactionaries of America's New Right, has stood firm in implementing the proposals.**

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Socialist Organiser no.119 February 10 1983 Page 7

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