Whatever Happened to ‘A Woman's Right to Choose’?

Abstract

The phrase 'women's reproductive rights' to describe the concept of women's right to decide if, when and how to have children has only been around since about 1979. It was first coined in the USA by feminists who formed the campaigning Reproductive Rights National Network. The concept itself is new in that it links up all the different aspects of birth control and childbearing which previously had been campaigned on separately by women. Stretching back into the nineteenth century in Britain we can find many campaigns organized by women: for the use of condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, for safer childbirth, for the right to information about how to practise birth control and for free access to birth-control methods, and, more recently, campaigns for legal abortion. The common thread in these campaigns is that they have been single issues, with specific objectives in relation to one main aspect of women's lack of autonomous control over reproduction. As such they have had a great measure of success in achieving their aims. Condoms are widely available; there is access to birth-control information and methods; abortion is legal under certain conditions; childbirth is much safer than it used to be. However, in spite of these vast gains, women have not achieved, either in law or in widespread social and medical thought or practice, the acceptance of a right to control over our own reproduction. It seems to me that it is only when the concept of'women's reproductive rights' is accepted that we will ever achieve liberation. Without it we can expect that every time a new birth-control method, a new form of technology in relation to birth, a new way of overcoming infertility comes onto the scene, the control over access to and use of it will not be in our hands; and when a new form of technology is seen as threatening enough to the status quo to warrant attention from Parliament, the laws made will not put control over it into women's hands. This can be seen clearly if we look back over the history of the fight for the right to abortion both in Britain and internationally, and more recently in developments in newer reproductive technology.