It seems as a cost-cutting measure, some NHS trusts are making women wait up to seven weeks for an abortion.

Which means, of course, they’ll often go beyond the point where it can be carried out by hormone treatment, and will require surgical intervention, which is, no doubt, more costly…. great decision by the administrators, and a lot of unnecessary strain on the patients.

The Department of Health wants 70% of all terminations to be carried out under 10 weeks gestation. According to its latest figures – from 2005 – the majority of abortions did take place within this time limit.
But the data revealed large regional discrepancies, with the worst performing PCTs carrying out only just over a third of terminations within 10 weeks.

Definitely not an area where you want a postcode lottery.

It is sad that I have to post this on Blog for Choice day – so I should add that we should also celebrate that most women, most of the time in England, Scotland and Wales DO have reasonable access to abortion. (Northern Ireland is another story.)

What we have to do is make sure that access improves – by removing the two-doctor rule. It should, under normal circumstances, be the decision of a woman alone, helped by a nurse, with doctors involved only when medically necessary.

To a brilliant meeting yesterday to work towards refounding Women Against Fundamentalism. As the introduction said:

Women Against Fundamentalism is alarmed at the threat to and silencing of trade union, socialist, feminist, anti-racist and other progressive movements – in the mainstream as well as in Black, migrant and refugee communities – by the state’s ‘War on Terror’. It is alarmed, too, by the collusion of elements on the Left with fundamentalist religious leaders who are attempting to undermine rights and freedoms, including in their own communities.

The group was founded in the immediate aftermath of the Rushdie fatwa and worked in the Nineties with groups including Women Living Under Muslim Laws (a still highly active group), the anti-war Women in Black, South Asia Watch (with particular concerns about the rise of Hindu fundamentalism) and Catholics for Free Choice.

It produced an excellent journal – all the articles are on the website and many are still all too relevant.

Now, the aim will be, as one speaker put it, to “bring ideas from diverse places to the crossroads where race and sex and class meet”. The word “nuanced” was used a lot at the meeting – the need to recognise that struggles against racism can’t be allowed to empower repressive forces within minority communities. As another speaker put it bluntly: now if you resist fundamentalism you risk being called pro-imperialist.

(If you are interested in getting involved contact with me – natalieben AT gmail DOT com and I can pass on contact details.)

And talk did turn quite a bit to blogging and other Net 2.0 things – luckily I one half of Stroppyblog was also there – nice to meet you ! – so we could share that around…

According to the Telegraph anyway, Israel is likely to soon have a female prime minister. Its second, of course, the first having been Golda Meir, who played, or at least was portrayed in the classic “Iron Lady” mode. But interestingly the new contender, Tzipi Livni is presenting herself very differently:

Miss Livni has revealed that she has had to struggle against the boys’ club atmosphere at the top levels of Israeli decision-making.
“Sometimes there are guy issues,” she said in a recent interview. Asked if there had been a “guy problem” in the conduct of the Lebanon war, she replied: “Not only in the war. In all kinds of discussions, I hear arguments between generals and admirals and such and I say, ‘Guys, stop it.'”

She is, perhaps inevitably, from the right, but on this account anyway she is appealing to the centre…

“This year’s topic is a simple one: tell us, and your readers, why you’re pro-choice.”

American terminology and focus, but something we all sadly have to keep doing, all around the world.