Dr. Goodhart (Galton Institute Newsletter 13: June 1994) restates his well known view that there was hardly any abortion before the Abortion Act was passed, despite the anxieties expressed on this score by so many organisations, and public health officials in the preceding thirty years. If one ignores all this historical evidence and assumes Dr. Goodhart is correct in his view, what explanation can one offer for the fact that within five years of the passing of the Abortion Act more than 100,000 abortions were being performed legally each year. It seems to me that three explanations are possible, though there may be more:
1. Once abortion was legalised, many thousands of women who had never thought of abortion before, suddenly opted for abortion rather than childbirth. Such was the evil and pervasive influence of the Abortion Act. This is broadly Dr. Goodhart’s view.
2. Once abortion was legalised, many thousands of women who had previously resorted to illegal abortion, gradually raised their heads above the parapet, and moved from the illegal to the legal abortion sector. This is broadly my view.
3. As a result of the passing of the Abortion Act, the expectations of women were raised. They became increasingly aware that it was not necessary to have more children than they wanted and could care for properly. Many social factors contributed to this development, including improved education for women, growing job opportunities, increased desire for economic independence, and a decline in religious belief. This explanation is compatible with either of the other two, and I would accept that these social processes increased the total number of women seeking and obtaining abortions in the years after the Act was passed.
Even if abortion had not been legalised in 1967, there would still have been a large increase in abortion in subsequent decades due to these social developments, as there has been even in Catholic Ireland where abortion is still illegal, and which therefore exports its middle class abortions to England and Wales, despite the fact that the agencies offering abortion information in Ireland have been closed down by government fiat. The working class abortions are done in the backstreets nearer to home. The Irish Evening Echo of May 9 draws attention to the high cost of abortion in Britain for Irish women (£500) in a time of recession and high unemployment in Ireland, for these women have to pay hotel and travel costs as well as clinic costs. A member of the Irish Women’s Support Group is quoted as saying that as a consequence local ‘Back Street Abortions Could Soar’. It seems that now as then, keeping abortion illegal simply drives it underground or overseas.
Dr. Goodhart correctly points out that we have had more than three million abortions since 1967 - instead of three million unwanted babies. This is surely something to be profoundly grateful for.
Madeleine Simms