consequences. No action, once done, can be undone. The findings of the studies overwhelmingly indicate that women who have abortions are the most likely to suffer later in life from mental duress. They are also more likely to suffer further physical problems. We have disguised a serious operation frequently with dire after effects as a simple process. We have led women into the operating theatre with promises of no complications and the misinformation that it is a minor procedure, only for them to find both long- and short-term problems affecting their lives. Many of these have been discussed in a previous chapter. The easy solution has proved more than once to be a mistake that cost a woman her life. Let's not dress up what we allow. We have sanitised, purified and sterilised this operation into a fairy-tale land of no troubles. We have all been a part of the conspiracy of silence and have all used the language of the magicians who have turned an industry which trades in the currency of misery and desperation into polite dinner conversation. We must now provide an effective challenge to these times and its language.
The media and responsibility
Responsibility for the language and tone of the debate about abortion lies primarily with the media. Rarely has any Private Member's Bill which has come before Parliament caused such media comment and at times hysteria as the Abortion (Amendment) Bill. Obviously a principal objective was to initiate a widespread debate on an issue which has been relegated to the obscure edges of most newspapers and journals. The media would inevitably be central in provoking the debate but it would have been na誰ve not to realise that one side effect would be the personal vilification, innuendo and attempts to set me at odds with David Steel. One problem that anyone faces in promoting a contentious issue in Parliament is that people's perception of the arguments, reasoning and personalities involved are formed through the media. Opinions formed over the course of this campaign were shaped, therefore, through newspaper, TV and radio coverage. TV and radio are bound by charters of impartiality, but the newspapers are not, and this showed in some of the press that the Bill received. When a reporter writes a story for a newspaper the reporter's opinion and style and the paper's line on that story affects how it finally reads. It can range from sympathetic through neutral to hostile. But when a pro-abortion journalist is not prepared to even try and write in a balanced and accurate way, the results can be