Abortion Rights Solidarity Motion

This branch notes:

the current threats to global abortion rights, led by the recent actions of the US Supreme Court (the nation’s most senior legal body) which have overturned the constitutional right to an abortion across the US;
closer to home, that many people who are seeking to end a pregnancy have to travel long distances and have to wait for considerable lengths of time to access abortion care;
that in the UK people can still be prosecuted for trying to procure an abortion (for example, for ordering abortion pills online, as recent press coverage has shown);
that all this is despite the fact that 85% of the general public in the UK support access to abortion in cases of unwanted pregnancy, and even though the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives have called for abortion to be decriminalised, and for our laws to catch up with modern medicine.

This branch believes:

that access to safe, free, legal and local abortion is a human right, as is the choice of whether to continue with a pregnancy;
that nobody should have to face life imprisonment for exercising or helping others exercise this right, and that abortion should be decriminalised in the UK and beyond;
and that, furthermore, abortion laws and rights should reflect the pro-choice beliefs of the general public.

This branch therefore resolves:

to join Abortion Rights, in standing in solidarity with all those who are facing escalating attacks on abortion rights, in the UK, US and worldwide;
to send solidarity to sibling unions and activist groups mobilising in defence of choice;
to support national and local solidarity motions in support of global abortion rights;
to affiliate with Abortion Rights and encourage our members to join as individual members