Women’s march against rape and all forms of violence against women. Take back the capital and put your feet on the streets for women on Reclaim the Night 2012. Join with thousands of women to shout a loud NO to rape and male violence against women and demand justice for survivors. Be there – for your friends, your sisters, your daughters, your colleagues, yourself; be there for all the women that can’t. See you at RTN 12. www.reclaimthenight.org
[Read more: Reclaim the Night 2012]
On email:
Abortion Rights NewsWelcome to our Autumn Update: as ever there’s a lot to catch up on – reshuffles, debates, demos and trials – and lots for us to do. We’re particularly excited about our upcoming protest, but before we start a quick reminder: it only takes a minute to join or donate to Abortion Rights. Your support will really make a difference to our campaign.
It’s time for Action on Abortion!
On Saturday 29th September UK pro-choicers will be out in force to call for Action on Abortion.
Alongside women in Belfast, Dublin and around the world, we’ll be marking the International Day for the Decriminalisation of Abortion by calling for rights for women in Northern Ireland and global legalisation of abortion.
And as we head towards another anti-choice 40 Days for Life campaign, we’ll be demanding an end to the harassment of women outside abortion clinics.
After a week in which we have seen the appalling Abort67 given the green light to continue with their aggressive campaign in Brighton (see below), now is the time to make some noise on this crucial issue.
So grab your banners and get yourself down to Old Palace Yard, opposite the Visitors Entrance to Parliament at 2pm on Saturday 29th September. We’d love to see you.
Find out more and download a flyer for the event.
Get involved! We want to make the 29th a national day of action too. So why not set up your own action in your home town? Earlier this year enterprising pro-choicers around the country told one of our least favourite anti-choice groups to SPUC Off! – and it was a huge success. All you need is a few mates, a few placards and a facebook event page.
We’ll help you publicise your event on twitter (we’re using the hashtag #ActionOnAbortion) and on our website. Just email or tweet us your plans and we’ll help to spread the word. There are plans afoot for events in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee but we need more! Be part of a global campaign for Action on Abortion!
More after the jump.
The next event will be at the Sportspersons Pub, Huddersfield, on Monday 30 April, 2012, from 7pm.
It’s been far too long since we held an event so to get things going, we’re inviting everyone to a Something of Significance Social.
The Sportsman pub have kindly offered us a room for our exclusive use. The idea is that people bring along an object (can be anything at all, as long as it’s portable – and not too big) that they can talk about in terms of its significance to them from a feminist viewpoint. Just a couple of minutes for each person, not a presentation, depending on how many people want to do this on the night. It’s a way of getting to know each other a bit better by sharing things that matter to us.
Hope you can come!
Well, we decided we wanted a book group. And a film society. Oh, and a song club too. That would also discuss zines, blogs, art, TV shows and other types of media and look at them from a feminist perspective. And so Read my Lips was born!
Next get-together:
Monday 30th January 2012
Tyrannosaur (18) Paddy Consadine
Join us to watch the film Tyrannosaur at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, then stop for a discussion of the film in the upper bar afterwards.
Click here for more info about the film and how to find the LBT.
Film starts at 7.30, tickets £6. Look out for us in the foyer from 7.15 or let us know you’re coming so we can look out for you!
* * *
Everyone’s welcome. Items for discussion can be anything – the only things we ask are that they are short enough for busy people to read/watch/otherwise digest, and that they are relatively available so people can get hold of them in advance of our get-togethers. They do not need to be ‘feminist’ in themselves, the idea is that we discuss things from a feminist point of view.
We hope to meet around monthly at appropriate venues in and around Huddersfield.
To make suggestions or to find out about our next get-together, drop an email to us at info@feministcollective.org.uk and we’ll let you know the venue and what we’re going to be talking about next.
Please see the poster advertising a road show in Leeds (January 2012) which my friend and I are helping out with. It seeks to raise awareness around the issues of human trafficking, and is being led by Stop The Traffik. (http://www.stopthetraffik.org/language.aspx)
Trafficking is a massive issue and this workshop seeks to get the issues ‘on the table’ so we can enter into useful dialogue about it.
I really hope you can make it, or spread the word. Alternatively, there is scope to put on your own road shows!
Thanks lots,
Fran McFarlane
Below is a campaign update from Abortion Rights – to recieve updates, visit www.abortionrights.org.uk and sign up for emails.
Welcome to our latest round-up of campaign news and pro-choice issues on our radar – abortion counselling, public health reform, anti-choice protests, global news and a look at what Abortion Rights has been up to recently. Where next on counselling?
On the abortion counselling front, there has been little movement from the Department of Health since the Parliamentary debate. As many of you will know, amendments to the Health and Social Care bill tabled by Nadine Dorries, which sought to strip abortion providers of their role in counselling women about their pregnancy choices, were comprehensively defeated in Parliament in September. At that time the Department of Health committed to holding a consultation on abortion counselling to further examine whether any change was needed. Since then, there has been little in the way of public pronouncements on the issue from the DH. When Diane Abbott sought clarification from Public Health Minister Anne Milton, she was told they were still ‘developing proposals’.
However, it now seems that the Department of Health aims to complete their planning for the consultation but the end of 2011, suggesting a launch in the New Year. We have also learned that that Departmental officials are conducting site visits to inspect current counselling systems. As we would expect, abortion providers BPAS and Marie Stopes have received visits, but alarmingly, the officials are also visiting the pregnancy counselling services offered by anti-choice groups LIFE and Care Confidential.
It would seem that ministers are seriously considering allowing these organisations, which are ideologically opposed to abortion and which have a track record of providing misleading and judgemental advice to clients, to be formally involved in NHS abortion and pregnancy decision-making care. Although it now seems that future changes to counselling regulations will not strip abortion providers of their right to advise patients on their choices, which is a victory in itself, allowing anti-choice groups to join them in offering this service would be an extremely negative step, undermining the right to accurate, unbiased information, as well as creating many practical problems and in all likelihood, serious delays. Abortion Rights will keep you updated as we hear more about the consultation – this is an issue that hasn’t gone away and we need a robust response from pro-choice supporters and groups.
Why pro-choice supporters should care about Public Health reform
Another key campaign issue which pro-choice advocates will need to focus on in the coming months is the government’s planned reform of the public health system, which will potentially have far reaching consequences for the delivery of abortion services. The plans, laid out in the government’s Public Health White Paper, mean that responsibility for abortion and most sexual health services will be transferred from Primary Care Trusts to Local Authorities. Abortion Rights, alongside healthcare professionals and sexual health groups, is concerned that this move threatens to turn the commissioning of abortion and sexual health services into political issues at local level, potentially resulting in some areas of the country voting to severely limit abortion service provision on financial or ideological grounds. Allowing elected local counsellors or even representatives of anti-choice or religious groups to serve on planned ‘Health and Wellbeing Boards’ opens up clinical commissioning decisions to political and ideological influence. Have a look at our briefing on the issue to find out more.
The issue is starting to attract the attention of MPs and anti-choice advocates. Following Parliamentary Questions on the issue, anti-choice group SPUC have started a campaign to ensure that Local Authorities are not required by the Department of Health to commission abortion services at all. Abortion Rights is raising these concerns with colleagues in health, equalities and trade unions groups and is urging them to include the issue in their campaigning work on NHS reform. We will also be discussing the issue at a Parliamentary Group meeting this month and will update supporters on what we find out.
THIS SUNDAY (Sunday 25th September)
Come along and celebrate local food at the third annual Incredible Edible Todmorden, Harvest Festival, 12 til 4pm, at the Unitarian Church (just off Longfield Road – click here for a map)
Come dine with us
Eight chefs offering demonstrations and tastings using local food.
Local producers
Stands and stalls selling delicious food – taste the difference.
Children’s games
Veggie creatures, potato printing, storytelling and more.
PLUS music, talks, Bee-spoke and The Green Route
Do you grow your own?
Bring your produce for judging from 10 – 11.30
Contact pauline@incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk for more information.
We’re starting a reading/film/art/culture discussion group! Like a reading group, there will be one managable ‘text’ each month, and we’ll get together informally in different locations to discuss it.
First up:
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber (click here to read on Google books)
A book of short stories – please read the title tale, and any others are a bonus!
Tuesday 20th September, 7.30pm, Upstairs bar at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield.
If you arrive before 7.30 one of us will be hanging about in the foyer to show you where to go! The venue is wheelchair accessible and refreshments both hard and soft will be available in the bar 🙂 This is a free event. Bring your ideas, plus any suggestions for future texts.
All welcome – hope to see you there!
We mentioned this a while ago, but it bears repeating – if you haven’t contacted your MP yet, please do so using the link below. We CAN make a difference – please don’t let the government slip this one through without raising your voice.
The following is re-blogged from The F Word
by Laura Woodhouse // 14 August 2011, 11:08
Abortion Rights have issued the following Action Alert encouraging us to contact our MPs to ensure women are not forced to seek counselling from anti-choice organisations prior to obtaining an abortion:
As many of you will know, plans are afoot to introduce new pre-abortion counselling requirements – opening the door for anti-choice organisations to receive public funds to advise women facing unplanned pregnancy. We need as many supporters as possible to contact their MP to urge them to vote against these proposals if they are debated in Parliament on 6th September.
We’ve set up an easy-to-use lobbying facility on our website. It only takes a minute to do – all you need is your postcode! It’s so important that we stop these anti-choice plans in their tracks. Just last week we saw further evidence of the appalling misinformation and bad practice used by some faith-based pregnancy counselling groups in their quest to deter women from having abortions.
What’s more, Nadine Dorries is already indicating that she wants to reopen the debate about the abortion time limit.We have to send a clear signal to politicians of all parties that our rights are not up for negotiation and we must make sure anti-choice MPs are not emboldened to continue chipping away at abortion access.
Please contact your MP via the AR website, or write a personal letter/email if you have the time/ability, as these are much more effective than templates.
You are very warmly invited to drop in and join us at our fifth SUNDAY SOCIAL
21st August, 1 – 4, downstairs at Coffee Evolution, 9 Church St, Huddersfield (click here for a map)
All welcome!
Hope to see you there… it’s kind of our first birthday!