Ruth Wishart: Anti-abortion movement is well-funded and gunning for us

The National

22-06-2025

Her doctors and a midwife said such a course of action would be illegal under the then Irish law whilst a foetal heartbeat was detectable. Savita was just 31 when she died of sepsis in 2018.
In the furore which followed, Ireland ­voted overwhelmingly to ditch the legal clause which prevented abortion. But it took six long years to pass the new ­amendment which did so.
It became part of the Irish ­Republic's ­journey to unlock the stranglehold the church had previously held over the law, and subsequently, in 2015, another ­amendment endorsed same-sex marriage.
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More recently, when the US ­Democratic legislator Melissa Hortman and her ­husband were murdered by a self-styled evangelical 'Christian' earlier this month, police found a list of some 70 other ­potential victims in his vehicle. The link they shared is that they had all been vocally pro-choice.
You might imagine it was enough for these ultras that they had killed off Roe v Wade in 2022, the landmark ruling which gave federal rights to termination in every US state. Evidently not.
Since that ended, we have had tragic ­instances of rape, child and incest ­victims being forced to carry to full term, women bleeding to death in hospitals, and the ­better-heeled having to take flights to that handful of states which didn't take ­advantage of the new legal landscape and kept women's rights safe.
It's almost as if all the male ­legislators who hollered loud and long for women to stay pregnant no matter the ­circumstances, ­collectively believed that all these ­pregnancies were somehow the result of immaculate conceptions. Unsurprisingly, there is not a four-deep queue of rogue ­fathers volunteering their financial or ­indeed any support. Men rule OK?
Last week in the Commons, the ­weaker of two possible amendments was passed which 'allowed' women who self-­terminated pregnancies, perhaps via online medication, to avoid prosecution. It did not exempt any medical staff who may have been involved.
The author of the second, stronger amendment wrote in The Guardian that the House had chickened out of proper reform and had been altogether too timid.
Yet again, some of the loudest voices raised in defence of the legal status quo belonged to men. Blokes like Tory ­Edward Leigh, whose features have always looked as if he were on the verge of apoplexy or worse.
These men also have one thing in ­common. They will never, ever be ­pregnant. Which doesn't prevent them from telling women what they should think, or whether or not they should control their own fertility.
So there is absolutely no reason to ­suppose that Scotland or the UK is safe from American lobbying. Just look at what happened when a modest law from Gillian Mackay MSP was passed stopping the Texan-based 40 Days For Life group assembling nearer than 200 metres from any facility offering terminations.
Some commentators have suggested all they were doing was praying. Puleeze. Some of the professional posters displayed had come straight from the source of the protesting. Including pictures of aborted foetuses. And there was much shouting, not just at women but at the medical staff who worked there.
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When a woman in her 70s was ­arrested, but never brought to court, she was ­immediately given heroine ­status by some US 'freedom of speech' groups. She had been picketing near Glasgow's Queen ­Elizabeth University Hospital, though not, to be fair ­shouting, and was ­demanding her 'right' to go to court ­despite the ­Procurator Fiscal ­recommending no ­further action.
This is all of a piece with the well-­funded, Europe-wide anti-abortion ­protesters who all demand their day in court to rubbish any laws to which they've taken exception.
Rose Docherty's arrest, following ­police warnings about trespassing in buffer zones, came just days after the US vice-president, JD Vance, made a series of ­totally false accusations about the ­Scottish laws, including the ­assertion that people could be in trouble for ­privately praying in their own home. And referencing 'thought police'.
All garbage of course, but not ­atypical of the current US administration's ­legendary inability to check their facts ­before their mouth is engaged. People who think getting rid of Donald Trump would herald a new relationship with the truth might consider that Vance is the constitutional heir apparent.
Which is not to say that legitimate ­protest should ever be outlawed, ­including protests with which we ­fundamentally disagree.
The Scottish legislation on buffer zones mentions the where of protest, but not the why. Its principal proposer received both death threats and abuse despite being pregnant herself.
Nevertheless, it was the Irish nation rising up and voting for change which brought about two civilising laws in that country where the church had long held too much sway.
Even in America, there are signs that ­decent folks are awakening from the ­slumber which brought us a second Trump term with all the many and ­increasingly obvious dangers that represents.
Non-Elon-Musk-related social media is awash with images of a poorly attended military parade which 'happened' to ­coincide with the president's 79th birthday and contrasting these images with the millions across the USA who turned out for No Kings Day.
The latter was a public riposte to Trump supposing that his presidential ­status gave him monarchical powers to do as he pleased. An assertion which ­followed a Time magazine cover this month ­featuring a back view of 'Trump' looking into a mirror where he wore a crown and lots of ermine. By long-standing Time ­artist Tim O'Brien, it was entitled King Me.
The idea that the man who treats ­executive orders like bulk-bought ­confetti should be left to his own fantasies ­managed to unite and enrage millions of people, some of whom had sat on their hands on the day of the election. Hell mend them.
It's become difficult enough to vote in America as it is without ignoring the hard-fought right to vote for which people once died. These barriers to polling rights have also crossed the pond, with new demands to present ID at polling stations despite there being minimalist evidence of voter fraud. No prizes for guessing which group is least likely to have a passport or driving licence.
So we must stay alert at all times to ­prevent our own rules, regulations and ­values from being altered by foreign ­voices. Apart from Vance, Musk has also weighed in with his views on the UK Prime ­Minister and much else.
The irony is that Musk himself is a ­migrant from South Africa, but the breath is not being held for those cuddly chaps from the US Immigration and Enforcement agency to deport him as they now have so many long-standing Americans who 'look foreign' (which is ICE speak for being brown.) If you think they're ­licensed thugs, you're not wrong.
Meanwhile round about us, the world appears to be hellwards bound in any available handcart. There are many ­theories about why Trump is planning to take a fortnight before deciding whether or not to give more support to Israel by providing the necessary aircraft and their so-called 'bunker-busting' bombs to reach buried Iranian nuclear sites.
I know the US president isn't much of a reader, but could I recommend several tomes which detail the effect of unleashing radio active materials from such sites? Not that he cares. It's a reasonably safe bet that the prevailing winds won't carry the nasties to the eastern seaboard in America. The bit that houses hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Like Gaza, really.