Abortion Law – men’s rights.

• Surveys suggest that most decisions to abort are reached by both partners
together – in as many as 90 per cent of cases according to some estimates. In their
study, published in 1984 (‘Men and Abortion, Lessons, Losses and Love’), Shostak
and McLouth found that only five per cent of the 1000 men they surveyed felt they
had been forced into the decision. A massive 84 per cent felt the decision was ‘a
joint resolution of the matter’. This suggests that most of the time couples can
reach joint decisions that they are both happy to live with. Disagreement between
couples about the decision whether or not to have an abortion is therefore rare and
few cases, in the UK at any rate, reach the law courts.

• The law is very clear on the matter of men’s rights. A man has no legal right to
prevent his partner even if they are married from having an abortion nor may he
force her to have an abortion. The decision rests solely with the woman, provided
she can convince two doctors that she meets the criteria laid out under the 1967
Abortion Act as amended by the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

• Richard Carver, 24 and a student at Magdalen College, Oxford attempted to
prevent his former girlfriend, a 21 year old woman also studying at Oxford, from
having an abortion. He argued that the abortion was unlawful in that the foetus
was, in the words of the 1929 Infant Life (Preservation) Act, ‘capable of being
born alive’. At the time of the case, the woman was 21 weeks pregnant. The father,
known throughout the case as ‘C’, brought the action in his own right and in the
right of the child. The case became known as the ‘C v S’ case. It was one of the
quickest in British legal history. It made its way from first hearing in the High
Court to an appeal and dismissal by the law lords in about 36 hours. Under normal
circumstances, such actions may take years. The result however, was that the
woman was deeply affected by the case and had the baby and gave it over to Carver
to look after.

Thinking point: Whose rights need to be considered in relation to abortion? Is
there a difference between legal rights and moral rights?