session.
Even if the Committee decides to go on hearing evidence, the dangers of this Bill - which would drive 80,000 women to back-street abortions will still be with us.
Wilson himself has clearly said that women should not have the right to choose whether their pregnancy is to be terminated (see his letter reprinted in last issue of Red Weekly), piously stating that the decision should be left up to two doctors. When massive cuts in social spending take away even the limited and run-down facilities that enable willing doctors to perform abortions on the NHS, such statements leave an especially sour taste in the mouth. In fact more and more State responsibilities are falling onto the shoulders of women in the family (such as nursing, educating, child-care) as all sectors of social spending are chopped.
In strengthening the ties of women to the family, the Wilson Government does two things. First, the family is encouraged to act as a shock A remarkable scene unfolded at As we go to press, the Select Committee set up after the second reading of James White's Abortion (Amendment) Bill is deciding on its plan of action. The Committee may decide to stop hearing evidence - even though the only evidence received from the 'public' (rather than the professional associations) has been from the infamous and discredited Litchfield-Kentish Babies for Burning team. If this happens, there may well be moves to get the Bill through Parliament this absorber for the crisis by taking on those tasks previously carried out by Secondly, the fight for the rights of women is put into reverse gear at a time when it is absolutely crucial for every member of the working class to be in a position to fight back against the capitalist offensive.
Wilson's attacks will only be thrown back if the workers' movement takes up all such issues, which can otherwise be used to weaken its defences. A number of actions have been launched recently which show the way forward in the fight to smash the White Bill and to win the right for women of free abortion on demand on the NHS.
A picket of Hammersmith Hospital on 2 July was organised jointly by the Hospital's Abortion and Nursery Campaign' and the West London NAC, attracting 150 people erit Benn speaking at the IC Conference, with (l to r) Audrey Wise, Bill Jones, Jim Murray, and Alastair Mackie the Government and to seek to achieve Hammersmith Hospital, told Red Weekly why the picket was called:
graceful record on abortion. Only five abortions are done each week because of the reactionary views fessor McClure Brown executive member of the anti-abortion group SPUC. ards went to see the management Brown as well as any other consultions.
and, because it shows that we are interests of the working class.
Richard Kramer, a member of the Joint Shop Stewards Committee at 'Hammersmith has a particularly disheld by the head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Proetc So the shop stewdemanding the removal of McClure tants not prepared to carry out abor'I think this is an important demprepared to organise as workers, to ensure that our jobs are done in the Another demand we are raising is for an out-patient abortion clinic. This would be the best way to ensure facilities to service patients, staff and visitors to the Hospital, because we think that part of a woman's right to choose must be that she can decide to have children as well. But if she wants children, it shouldn't automatically mean that she's tied down with them on her own at home!
The Hammersmith campaign has been organised in such a way as to involve rank and file workers from the start. A mass meeting in the hospital was attended by 30 nurses plus technicians, doctors and ancillary workers, and it was decided to link up with the West London NAC Ten thousand leaflets were distrib uted in factories, local housing estates, trade union branches, schools, At another hospital in London, University College Hospital, a campaign for abortion facilities is also under way. Again workers in the Bill. hospital have been drawn in, both by distributing a regular bulletin around the canteens at meal times and through NUPE, ASTMS and the Joint Shop Stewards Committee.
WEEKLY rights, but also for the right of the whole working class to take control over their health care, by organising to defend and extend the NHS and oppose all private practice CONFERENCE The support gained through such actions can help to build a strong movement which will make it impossible for the Labour Government to let White's Bill through. They demonstrate that the way forward in the campaign is not to rely on MPs in Parliament, but to develop mass organisation outside those walls. The NAC Conference on 18-19 October can lay the basis for a unified response with the broadest possible representation from the workers' movement against Wilson's complicity with the White Dodie Weppler & Berry Beaumont Details of the NAC Conference on 18-19 october, at imperial couege in bondon can be obtained from NAC, 80 Railton Road, London S.E.24.