A victory for rationality?

This week the UK parliament discussed the embryology bill. Brought in by the government to update the existing law on this subject, some twenty years old and becoming obsolete due to further scientific progress, it was intended to regulate several new grey areas opened up by this progress, but was hijacked by the religious anti-abortion right to reopen debate about the abortion limit of twentyfour weeks. Given a free vote on the subject (i.e. not bound to party policy on this vote) the members of parliament fortunately rejected all proposals to bring the abortion limit down from 24 to 12, 16, 20 or 22 weeks, and rejected it with fairly big margins too. A reason to celebrate?

Perhaps, but the simple fact that the anti-abortion fanatics were able to mount such a campaign in the first place is worrying. And even the most radical proposal still got 71 votes in favour. It’s evidence of the existence of a sophisticated and dedicated anti-abortion campaign in British politics, something previously only seen across the ocean. That a sizeable minority of people dislikes abortion isn’t new, but abortion as a key issue is, as is its embrace by the Tories. the campaign was spearheaded by Nadine Dorries and supported by Ravey Wavey Davey Cameron. It shows how slight ideological differences have become between the Tories and their Nu Labour mirror images that such a relatively minor issue should emerge as a rallying point. another lesson from America: when economic issues are off the table, socalled lifestyle and moral issues become the battlefield.

As worrying as the fact that anti-abortion is now a viable cause in British politics, is the way in which this campaign has been run on “little more than tawdry emotional blackmail, smears and downright demonstrable lies” as Justin put it. That despite this the anti-abortion proposals were rejected and the governmental proposals to strip out the need for inferitility clinics to consider the need for a father figure for couples undergoing IVF treatment, as well as to allow “animal-human hybrid”embryos to be created for research purposes were accepted is heartening. Personally I am somewhat disappointed “saviour siblings” –“babies born because they are a tissue match for a sick older brother or sister with a genetic condition” as the BBC puts it— were disallowed, but than this is a much more complicated issue than the other three.