'Contraception and abortion together allow a woman to become political in ThaT S Ine basis Tor nei participation in the politics both of sexuality and of the wider world. tyranny of biological destiny need no longer dominate her to the extent that it nas in all past nistorical periods.
So Victoria Greenwood and Jock Young conclude their book Abortion in Demand (Pluto Press, £1.65). Havthemselves the task of aning set alysing the politics of ine abortion debate, they examine the legislation, statistics on abortion and the various arguments put forward in the debate Particularly useful are Sine ments put forward against the reformers - that abortion is every woman's right, not a convenient form of social engineering catering for a small number of 'deviant women. The authors explain that the reformers' perspective does not question the family, their underlying conception of society as fundamentally healthy leads the retormers to define those seeking abortions as 'abnormal.
They argue that the 1967 introduced not as a step towards free abortion on demand, but rather as a means of aiding the main beneficiaries of the welfare state: women 'on the fringe of society who couldn't cope with their rightful role of mother. For to concede that economic drive so many women to seek abort ions is to make a hefty indictment of the present oreer. And course, it is precisely this that the reformers are not prepared to do.
The authors also stress that abortion should be understood as part of birth rather than population control, La woman's choice whether or not she has a child. This is India (to name but two examples) where abortion and forced sterilisation are used to maintain imperialist equal control in those countries. greenwooe Young that the essential part but that women. society, the choice as to whether or not to have a child is at best partial. However, the book's weakness lies in its failure to explain abortion as a class rather than individual question We are told that the revolutionary left 'simplistically' subsumes issues into the 'rhetoric' argu- analysis, yet at no time do the authors explain why it is that socialists should take up the question of abortion. The nuclear family is only mentioned in passing, and its function as a central pillar to maintain capitalist society is not examined.
and Controlling women Act was In fact the issue of women controlmore important for socialists to take up in a period of capitalist crisis. The fight for this control challenges the two-pronged attack of the reasons Cass women being the first to be made redundant, and being the servicers of children in the home.
of In the past year, attacks on abortion rights have been coupled with attacks on childcare facilities through public expenditure cuts, increasing women's family responsibilities. idea that a woman's olace is in the as to home' rests on the existence of these responsibilities.
Women are nuched
of the working class. class is consequently conclude ruling an neatly accomplished. the liberation of capitalist class. it also of class fighting women's oppression.
SUE LANDAU
E1.65 pap PLUTO PRESS ruling whole back into to a greater degree than other sections The working divided and weakened, and through this any potproject can be This means that women's demands are central, not peripheral, for socialists in the fight against attacks on the means that there is a case for a campaign on the issue of abortion alone which should involve people not vet convinced ol the need to fight women's oppression on all fronts - something the authors are not very clear on. However, this book is a positive contribution to the abortion debate, and should be read by all socialists who are serious about ABORTION IN DEMAND «Temo e Meads station