Feminist and pro-life societies host abortion debate

Appleton Tower was the scene of a debate on abortion on Thursday 1 March, co-sponsored by the Edinburgh University Feminists Society and the Edinburgh Pro-Life Society.

The debate was chaired by EUSA president Matt McPherson and invited a panel of experts to discuss the issue and take questions from the floor.

The panel was made up of Elain Gallacher, the education offier for the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative; Breedagh Hughes, the director for the Royal College of midwives in Northern Ireland; Professor Dr Calum MacKellar, visiting professor of Bioethics at St Mary’s University College in Twickenham; and Professor Dr Wendy Savage, a gynaecologist and obstetrician and the former press officer for Doctors for the Womans’ Right to Choose an Abortion.

The debate began with a short introduction of both the co-sponsor’s views on the issue and responses to the opposing view. Hilary Cornish and EUSA VPAA Mike Williamson made the case for the Feminist Society and Christopher Oldroyd and Laura Lynch (the vice-president and an ordinary member respectively) spoke for the Pro-Life Society.

During both the introductory talk and the debate there were instances of laughter and heckling from the audience, prompting Matt McPherson to ask that the debate continue in a respectful manner.

Both Hughes and Professor Savage made reference to the abortion situation in Northern Ireland, which has different abortion laws to other parts of the the UK. As in the Republic of Ireland, abortion is illegal except in cases where allowing a pregnancy to continue would threaten the life of the mother.

Professor Savage said it was “a scandal” that women in Northern Ireland cannot access safe, legal abortion.

Hughes elaborated, stating that women seeking abortions in borth Northern Ireland and the Republic commonly travel to other parts of the UK where they must pay up to £2,000 for the procedure, as they cannot receive the treatment on the NHS.

Professor Savage responded to stories of women suffering post-abortion trauma referred to by an audience member by saying that women she had treated often regretted the act of intercourse that resuled in needing an abortion, rather than the abortion itself.

Gallacher and Professor MacKellar reinforced the case made by the Pro-Life Society that life begins at conception and that abortion is the destruction of a unique human life.

They went on to argue that abortion was a quick-fix solution that would not solve the underlying problems that caused women to require abortions and that women should be presented with a full range of options when having a ‘crisis pregnancy’.

Although the debate was interrupted several times by people speaking out of turn, it proceeded smoothly, with many questions from the audience being answered and panellists responding to one another’s points.

Originally published in The Student newspaper, 06/03/2012