Abortion Rights Summer School 2021

SCHOOLS IN FOR SUMMER

Abortion Rights’ has curated a broad-ranging program of lectures & workshops to be held on zoom over June. Every Wednesday through June.

The Tickets

By purchasing a ticket, you not only get to enjoy a wide variety of panels crammed with reproductive Health experts, but you are also the supporting Abortion Rights work, at Abortion Rights’ we believe the key to fighting effective battles will be creating opportunities for that majority to be heard. We’re up to the task, and but we need you with us as as we face a powerful and well-funded opposition who have proven they will do almost anything to restrict our reproductive freedom.

Abortion Rights Members: Combo ticket, all session for £5

Non-members: Sessions are £6 each, or you can purchase a combo ticket & enjoy all four symposiums for the bargain price of £20.

Membership and combo deal: £30 you give membership to AR for a year plus access to all 4 sessions!

ENROL TODAY FOR THE CLASS OF 2021: THE PANELS

What does intimate Partner Violence have to do with abortion? | 09/06/21 – 7 pm

The pandemic has led to a temporary relaxation of our laws, essentially Covid-19 has enabled those most vulnerable in society to receive the care and access to abortion services they need. However, the tele-medicine abortion provision will be removed once the threat of coronavirus has passed, and unless the Government acknowledges the systemic problems with our current abortion laws, victims of domestic violence will once again be forced in to continuing pregnancies against their will, or buying pills off the internet. 

COVID-19 has highlighted the failures of our antiquated abortion laws; The silver lining of the pandemic, was the temporary relaxation of our laws, which allowed people seeking an early medical abortion (up to 10 weeks) to have the required consultation remotely (rather than in-person at a clinic) and then receive the 2 medications via post.

Women with a history of Intimate Partner Violence have significantly higher odds of unintended pregnancy, often victims of domestic abuse struggle to access abortion services in person, unable to escape from their abuser or being subjected to having their travel and communications monitored for example. As a direct result of being able to access these remote abortion services, people from Great Britain are no longer sourcing abortion pills online, international providers confirm.

However, if telemedicine abortion provision is removed once the threat of coronavirus has passed, and unless the Government acknowledges the systemic problems with our current abortion laws, victims of domestic violence will once again be forced in to continuing pregnancies against their will, or risk crimilisation buying pills off online.

Join our panel as they unpick the links between intimate Partner Violence and make the case that expanding women’s choice around abortion helps the most vunderal in society.

Abortion Poverty: The Hidden Cost of Abortion | 16th June – 7 pm.

Abortion is a class issue; those who are struggling, are vulnerable, or most at risk are more likely to fall through the cracks at times of need. They may not have the information, finances, or support that others receive or have access to. But what does this mean for abortion services in the UK? To many people, it might seem that getting an abortion is a simple process in this country, but unfortunately, as with a lot of things, that is far from reality.

There are legal restrictions in place, the invisible hoops to jump through in order too be granted permission to have an abortion.

Then there are the practical barriers to being able to get to the appointments and have the procedure: the cost of overnight accommodation in some circumstances; trying to find/pay for child care, often at short notice; being able to afford to take time off work; finding the money for train fare to/from the clinics the list goes on.

Going beyond choice | Abortion experiences of people of colour in the UK 23/06/2021 | 7 pm

In the UK black women are five times more likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts. Women from Asian ethnic backgrounds face a twofold risk, and women living in the most deprived areas of the UK are almost three times more likely to die than those in the most affluent areas.

Racist ideology is a pillar in the development of medicine, from eugenicist theories about the bodies of people of colour, the history of contraception coercion to the experimentation on these populations without consent. The ways in which racist ideologies have been accepted in medicine creates the inequalities that are experienced by people of colour today.

Women of colour are having to advocate for themselves in an institution that still states of deeply racist science, fighting to be heard, to be believed but most importantly fighting for their lives.

Every person has the right to make their own reproductive choices, but when the stakes are this high for black women, the decision making process of whether or not to continue a pregnancy goes beyond the standard of weighing up if it’s the right time or am I ready to will I survive.

Is it time for reckoning in the pro-choice movement? To produce a narrative of abortion that is inclusive of the experiences of women of colour. It is time for campaigners to move away from the ‘individualist’ model focused around bodily autonomy toward a more rights-based framework of reproductive justice?

What we can learn from anti-choice narratives| 30/06/2021| 7 pm

The vast majority of the UK—nine in 10—support legal access to abortion. Yet, campaigners are reporting a surge in U.S. style anti-choice groups expanded into the U.K., bringing more aggressive tactics that overshadow the meeker homegrown movement.

The antis are using tactics straight out of the US abortion activists handbook, and it’s concerning, from the routine shaming and intimation of abortion seekers and staff out clinics to increased targeting UK university students to the peddling fake science and falsehoods as face the wilder strategy of offering ‘abortion reversal pills’- the UK antis have got meaner and pernicious. 

Join our panel as they delve into the murky world of anti-choice tactics and examining the influence, inspiration the UK  anti-abortion movement takes from the US and what we can do about it.