This one is no exception. But it has a significant virtue, lacking in the reams of literature produced by feminist campaigns. It tells it like it is and justifies why it needs to be so. It is a tragedy that abortion supporters failed to build support for a vitally important clinical principle, opting instead for a case with superficially more public appeal, but which ignored the issues at stake. In staying silent on the real situation facing such doctors, Fitzsimmons says, the pro-choice lobby has acted as though it has a 'guilty secret'.
Doctors risking their reputations and livelihoods to relieve women's distress deserve better.
There is always a temptation in politics to avoid the difficult arguments. On this side of the Atlantic, abortion campaigners highlight teenage pregnancies, women in dire poverty, women with wanted pregnancies affected by abnormalities, but do not say much about the huge number of abortions performed for women who could cope with a child but simply do not want to. They have obviously never seen one. Of course abortion is unpleasant, which-ever method is used, but it is necessary. We can best make our case by explaining why it is necessary - starkly and honestly.