A women’s right to choose

NUS is pro-choice and the organisation’s stance, set at women’s conference and supported by the disabled students’ campaign, is to defend and extend access to abortion.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is hitting parliament in May. There are opportunities and there are serious threats to a woman’s right to choose. This is the biggest threat to our access to safe legal abortion in a generation. The message we want to send to MPs is simple – don’t attack the 24-week time limit and offer full access to women for safe, legal abortion on the NHS

The majority of people in the UK support our views and keeping the 24-week time limit is supported by a cross party science and technology select committee. However, the anti-choice movement is loud and therefore you still need to lobby your MP.

Take action
Attend the protest as MPs vote on women's abortion rights
Tuesday 20 May, 5.30pm
Outside parliament.

Write to your MP. A model letter is available on the Abortion Rights homepage.

Find your MP here.

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Disabled students' pro-choice stance
Many disabled women have abortions after 20 weeks. This can be for a variety of legitimate reasons and the current campaign to reduce the time limit will harm disabled women who may be forced to go through a pregancy against their will or forced to consider illegal abortions.

NUS believes that anti-choice MPs are also pushing for debates around disability and abortion - in an attempt to limit access to abortion in any way that they can. We further believe that anti-choice campaigners are using disability as a political tool and this is offensive to disabled people. Some anti-choice campaigners argue that women should not be able to have abortions on the grounds of disability, however, we argue that women should not have to give any reason at all for accessing abortion and that if a woman doesn’t want to have a baby then that is her ultimate choice. Within the social model of disability, there is no such thing as a ‘disabled foetus’ – the disablism does not happen at the point where the woman chooses to abort – the disablism happens all the time, there is a disabling lack of information provided for pregnant women, and our disablist society sometimes means that individual women feel that they would not be able to cope.

• NUS reaffirms our support for a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion or not.
• NUS campaigns for accurate, non-directive information to be given to women upon discovering there is a chance of foetal impairment.
• NUS continues our productive work with Abortion Rights and will follow its advice on campaigning should this issue arise in the next five years.
• NUS never allows anti-choice campaigners, with ulterior motives, to divide the Disabled Students Campaign and the Women’s Campaign – not least because of the cross over of Disabled Women who experience multiple discrimination in their lives.

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