walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party last Thursday after repeated attacks had been made on Government moves to reappoint the Select Committee considering restrictions on the 1967 Abortion Act.
The meeting was attended by an unusually large number of MPs, a sign of the impact the mass campaign on this issue has had since the first protests against the James White Bill just a year ago. In that time both the TUC and the Labour Party conferences have come out for free abortion 'on request', and increasing pressure has been put on the supposed representatives of the labour movement in the House of Commons to toe the line on Enis question The number of Labour MPs who argued at the meeting for the reappointment of the Select Committee could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Dr Maurice Miller spoke for a clear majority of those present when he pointed out that its reappointment would be used as a focus by the right "for a concerted drive to make fundamental changes in the 1967 Act.
Even Barbara Castle was forced to admit that after weighing this matter very carefully' she had decided that to re-establish the Committee would be a mistake. Did this mean that the Government was now about to take its responsibilities to the working class movement on this question more seriously? Not at all.
Mrs Castle was quick to point out that this was only her 'personal view. The Government had made certain undertakings in the House of Commons, and its responsibilities here could not (of course) be treated nguny. A monon to te appoint the Select Committee would still be tabled, and then we shall all be completely free to vote on this aceording to our judgement and consciences.
How touching -those thousands of women who face a return to the back streets if any more restrictions are imposed on the already inadequate 1967 Act. What Mrs Castle was actually doing was freeing the anti-abortion MPs from their obligations to those working class organisations which put them in Parliament, and giving them the go-ahead to indulge James White-walked out of meeting their reactionary prejudices to the full.
But the stormy scenes at last Thursday's meeting indicate that these MPs face an increasingly rough ride in the future. The fate of the Select Committee is now in the balance.
that will indeed be an important victory. Even if it is re-established, the preceding events have testified to the effectiveness of the extraparliamentary actions of the Nat-particularly for ional Abortion Campaign and around the Working Women's Charter in building up working class resistance to any restrictions on abortion.
demonstration on 3 April will provide an important focus in developing still further the support for free abortion on demand - a woman's right to choose.