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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Abortion decriminalisation ‘undermines feminism’ - Kathleen Stock

241 replies

IwantToRetire · 19/06/2025 00:36

The historic vote has divided public opinion, with many welcoming the “hard-won victory” for women, and others warning that it goes too far.

Kathleen Stock, a former philosophy professor at the University of Sussex, who was forced to quit her job following a row with the institution over her views on gender rights and its transgender policy, was among those criticising the ruling.

“Late-term abortions kill babies,” she said. “Viable babies.”

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, she added: “There is no good case for full decriminalisation as voted for today. And there is no genuine political will for it either, because most people haven’t been slowly boiled in a vat of hyperliberal feminism and progressive technocracy like overheating frogs, until they can’t tell which way is up.

“All this will do is further undermine the legitimacy of <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/ThZhc/www.telegraph.co.uk/feminism/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">feminism generally (by association, even if some feminists are actually against it) and also undermine public trust in lawmakers (How could this have been decided so quickly without any proper consultation or discussion of a wide range of views? Why wasn’t it in the manifesto, if it is so important?).”

available in full at https://archive.is/ThZhc

Extracts from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/18/abortion-decriminalisation-undermines-feminism/

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7
PandoraSocks · 19/06/2025 11:53

Merrymouse · 19/06/2025 11:44

Was this discussed in parliament? Is this an intentional safe guard?

I don't know about Parliament because I haven't read the whole debate, but there there is BMA guidance on the legal, regulatory and professional controls that still apply.

Alwaystired94 · 19/06/2025 11:54

TeenagersAngst · 19/06/2025 11:45

How will that actually happen? There will be no investigation due to this amendment so unless he's being investigated for other reasons, it would go undetected. Of course the woman might report it - but in cases of coercive control, that's highly unlikely.

Edited

Of course i understand that - my hope (as i'm not medical so am not 100% on the ability) is that if said woman seeks medical assistance due to the horrific ordeal, the pills could be seen in their system and this could raise a red flag? I'm not sure if that's possible.

Sadly there will always be cases that fall 'outside' of the norm, but just like with how it was previous, there are women being further traumatized by being questioned over losses of much wanted babies.

Flustration · 19/06/2025 11:57

My gut feeling is disappointment. However, I have a lot of respect for Kathleen Stock so I will try to keep an open mind until I've managed to fully get my head around the nuances of her argument.

I wrote a very long post about this on another thread but IMO abortion is a tangle of interrelated issues which heavily overlaps with assisted dying.

In short, I believe that a woman should be able to end a pregnancy at any point up until birth. However, I also believe that direct injury to the baby itself is euthanasia and should only be offered when the baby would die or suffer terribly if delivered at that gestation.

In practice, I think this would mean that doctors would evaluate on a case-by-case basis and that hospital-supported induction would be the only legally acceptable method of ending a pregnancy for a viable baby.

Complicated issues rarely have simple solutions.

StandFirm · 19/06/2025 11:57

g) The UK is not the US. With best will in the world, Americans reading their own issues into the UK situation is unhelpful.

The UK is not the US... BUT there is a creeping influence from US-based evangelical organisations trying to influence discourse over here.
It's something I have observed IRL too, and across various Christian denominations. Even outwardly secular anti-abortion advocates do tend to have some kind of religious belief underpinning their stance. I thought this doc here gave a pretty balanced insight into what is going on and who supports what:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00256p2/young-british-and-antiabortion

The issue is complex. I myself had a child very young. It was a choice I made but conversely I can absolutely imagine a scenario where it could have ended up differently. I would never judge. The issue with criminalising abortion is that it does not stop somewhere 'reasonable'. Invariably, it is linked to a blatant disregard for the life of the mother and for the societal challenges and inequalities we are facing as women. The recently voted amendment does not change the framework in terms of what's accessible but it stops viewing pregnant women as potential criminals almost by default. That's important. And even though we are two very different countries, the US has shown that rights can be rolled back and that they must be fiercely safeguarded.
To be blunt, Reform are no friends of women and they DO belong to the same political franchise as MAGA. Anything we can do to limit potential damage or make reversals more difficult should be done now.

EasternStandard · 19/06/2025 11:58

I find this more an issue of inadequate healthcare and support for women.

GrammarTeacher · 19/06/2025 11:59

StandFirm · 19/06/2025 11:57

g) The UK is not the US. With best will in the world, Americans reading their own issues into the UK situation is unhelpful.

The UK is not the US... BUT there is a creeping influence from US-based evangelical organisations trying to influence discourse over here.
It's something I have observed IRL too, and across various Christian denominations. Even outwardly secular anti-abortion advocates do tend to have some kind of religious belief underpinning their stance. I thought this doc here gave a pretty balanced insight into what is going on and who supports what:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00256p2/young-british-and-antiabortion

The issue is complex. I myself had a child very young. It was a choice I made but conversely I can absolutely imagine a scenario where it could have ended up differently. I would never judge. The issue with criminalising abortion is that it does not stop somewhere 'reasonable'. Invariably, it is linked to a blatant disregard for the life of the mother and for the societal challenges and inequalities we are facing as women. The recently voted amendment does not change the framework in terms of what's accessible but it stops viewing pregnant women as potential criminals almost by default. That's important. And even though we are two very different countries, the US has shown that rights can be rolled back and that they must be fiercely safeguarded.
To be blunt, Reform are no friends of women and they DO belong to the same political franchise as MAGA. Anything we can do to limit potential damage or make reversals more difficult should be done now.

Agree

NumberTheory · 19/06/2025 12:04

Catpuss66 · 19/06/2025 11:25

So if you are pro abortion have you been involved in one? All very well saying it. Have you watched a term baby die? Not sure the majority of women take your view, I hope not. Abortion is a deeply personal decision. I am pro choice not my decision to make but I would support a woman who choices to have one. By you saying these “I don’t feel fetal viability is important in the matter” , when you have been involved & held a dying baby then come back to me.

I’m not sure it’s a decision I would ever make for myself if my pregnancy didn’t fall into the current allowable categories. But I support women’s right to choose not to be pregnant at any stage.

Plenty of people take my view, and plenty don’t. Some of both side have been involved in abortions and some of those continue to be involved. I have been involved in abortions, though not as medical staff. Not seeing how that is connected to holding a dying baby (something I have also done in very tragic circumstances when a police officer).

I have already said I know my position is a fairly extreme one, though I think that’s more about wishing people saw abortion as a first choice for an unplanned pregnancy as I think our society would be better off if every baby was wanted by its mother. Being okay with abortions after viability is not so extreme. It’s something that is not a majority view but is still held by a large number of people.

GarlicMile · 19/06/2025 12:05

zmq3Zm96uijcs2c · 19/06/2025 08:38

I’m surprised anyone is shocked. Stock has made it abundantly clear that she thinks people should be controlled in how they are able to inhabit their own bodies. This is on brand.

Yep, sadly. She also has a solid track record of speaking for, and over, women if she thinks feminism's creating 'poor optics'. I recall her muscling in on the trans issue with loud calls for us to dial it down, stop telling inconvenient truths, as it made us look like big meanies.

I've not been keeping notes, but suspect she changed position when the borg went for her livelihood.

RowsOfFlowers · 19/06/2025 12:09

Merrymouse · 19/06/2025 09:11

Much, much more risk if a woman is effectively giving birth at home alone.

That is why the abortion pills are only supposed to be given to women who are less than 10 weeks pregnant.

Ironically, a major reason that abortion was legalised in the UK was to enable women to have safe abortions assisted by a doctor.

Good point.

HeadbandUnited · 19/06/2025 12:11

Nameychangington · 19/06/2025 10:50

Unborn babies do not have rights. They do not 'have the right not to be aborted', that's not how the law is framed. That is a very slippery slope to go down and I'm glad there's no political appetite to do so currently in the UK.

And your agenda is clear from the description of women's 'certain limited rights'. Women aren't support animals.

Not my agenda, just an accurate reading of the Equality Act. Women's rights to single sex spaces are actually just an exemption for prosecution for a service provider that considers a SSS to be reasonable and proportionate. It's not really a "right", but we call it that colloquially, and on the same basis a healthy late term foetus' protection from being aborted can be described as a "right".

But that's all semantics really. It's utterly obvious that there is a substantive clash between the interests of women and the interests of the baby. It is idiotic TRA-esque behaviour to pretend otherwise.

Hedgehogbrown · 19/06/2025 12:18

IwantToRetire · 19/06/2025 01:30

I haven't found the "unhinged frogs bit" but she has posted this on X

Longish summary of responses to points offered on my timeline for full decriminalisation of abortion, even up to birth, using at-home abortion pills for non-medical reasons (which has just been voted for, absolutely crazily imo, by UK MPs)

a) You may not be able to know or say at what precise point some grains make a heap but you still know unambiguously when you can see a heap. Same goes for cells, and for baby. Late-term abortions kill babies. Viable babies. This position does not require there to have been a baby/human/person there all along. Pushing back on full decriminalisation is not arguing for no abortions ever. (Which obviously could be done, but I'm not doing it).

b) Babies at late term have unambiguous interests of their own. They are not just narcissistic extensions of mother. They are not parasites or invaders. They are human beings. They are dependent human beings and is weird to see feminists who talk about value of care and dependence become psychopathically detached about the value of the life of a dependent, viable baby because the mother doesn't want it. It sounds dementedly callous to try to deny the interests of babies in this sort of issue by defining them out of existence, or just ignoring the fact they do exist at all. If you said "yes, babies have been/ will be killed by use of at-home abortion pills for non-medical reasons, but that is less important than that their mothers don't face the stress of prosecution" I would at least respect the honesty.

c) The law against late-term abortions acts as a deterrent against mothers killing their babies. If you lift it, you will get more deaths. You say it’s only a few - is that really supposed to be an argument? And; If I am not supposed to care about “only a few” baby deaths, why am I supposed to care about only a few prosecutions? Again, if you are reasoning like this, and especially if you are weighing it up only against the mother's alleged right to non-prosecution, then you have your priorities badly skewed, and have conveniently forgotten that deaths of babies are also involved. And while we are at it: how do you know it will only be a few baby deaths in years to come? Do you know what happens when new social norms get embedded around new technology, and other ones – say, around contraception – shift? The use of at-home abortion pills is relatively new, who knows where it will be in ten years time?

d) If you have to excuse the death of a baby by hyperbolically depicting the only sort of women who would ever have a late-term non-medical abortion as "desperate" and otherwise blameless, it's a tell for motivated reasoning. There are many kinds of women in the world, who act for many different kinds of reason. Do you think all infanticides or child murders are only carried out by "desperate" and otherwise blameless women? (If you do, probably stop reading, there is no hope for you.) There are also, of course, men in the world who can get their hands on abortion pills and force women to take them. Your backing of decriminalisation is making that more easy too.

e) It is fascinating that some of you think both of these things are true at the same time: a) “women should never be prosecuted for carrying out their own late-term abortions, even for non-medical reasons ’ and b) “people providing assistance for late-term abortions for non-medical abortions should still be prosecuted” (as they will continue to be). So you do think there is something wrong with these abortions then, do you? What? Could it be that a baby dies?

f) The idea that it is really important we repeal this law because of the possibility of false prosecution of women is bizarre (and again, the histrionic depiction focusing on "women who have suffered miscarriages being dragged away from their children in police vans in the middle of the night" etc is a tell, like you have to amp up the drama to make the point. Also, how interesting: suddenly it's ok to care about the interests of young dependent children again, is it? But I digress…) Anyway, let's apply this logic to rape law. We must repeal rape laws because falsely accused men are being dragged away from their children in the night.. um, no? The law has a point, it has a deterrent function, and that point is more important than the inevitable possibility of false prosecution given the existence of any law in the first place. f) Those telling me that academics and NGOs have done all the thinking on this already and I should just outsource my brain to them are really having a laugh. I've looked at their arguments and do you know, it's really weird, but they don't talk about the baby's interests, even in late-term abortion for non-medical reasons. They just act like that issue isn't there. And it is.

g) The UK is not the US. With best will in the world, Americans reading their own issues into the UK situation is unhelpful.

There is no good case for full decriminalisation as voted for today. And there is no genuine political will for it either, because most people haven’t been slowly boiled in a vat of hyperliberal feminism and progressive technocracy like overheating frogs, until they can't tell which way is up. All this will do is further undermine the legitimacy of feminism generally (by association, even if some feminists are actually against it) and also undermine public trust in lawmakers (How could this have been decided so quickly without any proper consultation or discussion of a wide range of views? Why wasn’t it in the manifesto, if it is so important?).

https://x.com/Docstockk/status/1935104281989849563

Well this is what I have been trying to articulate when commenting on these threads regarding this law. I am astounded at the amount of women who can 'psychopathically' explain away the death of a late term baby, who would have suffered and slowly died in the womb, as though it is th same thing as a 10 week fetal blob. It's nuts!

And there I never any justification for letting a whole group off and declaring them innocent. Not transwomen when they get accused of rape, not women when they terminate a late term pregnancy at home, and give birth to a still born baby. I can't believe most of you can't see the nuance in this.

EasternStandard · 19/06/2025 12:18

I hadn't read up on Nicola Packer's case until now and this stood out

'She tearfully told the jury of nine women and three men that she would not have taken the medication if she had known how far along she was, telling the court: “I wouldn’t have put the baby or myself through it.”

This seems a failing of the system still. We don't do ultrasounds as other countries do. The support isn't there.

EasternStandard · 19/06/2025 12:20

Merrymouse · 19/06/2025 09:11

Much, much more risk if a woman is effectively giving birth at home alone.

That is why the abortion pills are only supposed to be given to women who are less than 10 weeks pregnant.

Ironically, a major reason that abortion was legalised in the UK was to enable women to have safe abortions assisted by a doctor.

Yes this, why are people not thinking of this? It seems to overlook fundamental support and care.

Merrymouse · 19/06/2025 12:22

PandoraSocks · 19/06/2025 11:53

I don't know about Parliament because I haven't read the whole debate, but there there is BMA guidance on the legal, regulatory and professional controls that still apply.

Given the BMA's comments on the recent Supreme Court decision, I would not look to them for legal advice (and would hesitate to ask them for medical advice).

However, I suppose the answer is that I need to read the whole debate!

Hedgehogbrown · 19/06/2025 12:24

FeralWoman · 19/06/2025 07:29

Babies at late term have unambiguous interests of their own. They are not just narcissistic extensions of mother. They are not parasites or invaders. They are human beings. They are dependent human beings and is weird to see feminists who talk about value of care and dependence become psychopathically detached about the value of the life of a dependent, viable baby because the mother doesn't want it. It sounds dementedly callous to try to deny the interests of babies in this sort of issue by defining them out of existence, or just ignoring the fact they do exist at all.

I disagree with KS. Until the foetus is born it doesn’t have rights or interests. It’s not a human being until it’s born. Foetal personhood means that the woman becomes an incubation vessel and loses her rights over her own body because the foetus’ rights and interests have to be considered too. The living, breathing woman’s interests and rights should always be the most important, and the only ones that should be considered. Foetal personhood is a slippery slope that leads to brain dead women being kept on life support to incubate a foetus to viability.

So why are abortions not performed after 24 weeks in the UK, unless for medical reasons? So you think an abortion should be carried out at, say, 35 weeks, because of the Mothers autonomy? There's a difference between allowing a Mother to keep her rights, which we have in the UK, and not treating a 35 week baby like something that can be killed slowly and discarded at the Mothers whim.

Viviennemary · 19/06/2025 12:27

Of course a fetus is a human being. It certainly is alive and does not belong to any other species.

Newbutoldfather · 19/06/2025 12:29

I think this is a wrong headed and anti-feminist new law (of repealing of the old one).

Women, including pregnant women, are responsible for their actions. It is infantilisation to say anything else.

And the fact that no one on this thread would contemplate doing this ‘just because’ doesn’t mean no woman would. Most violent crimes aren’t committed by the type of person who types reasoned arguments on MN.

And why not decriminalise infanticide or any over stressed parent killing their toddler due to lack of sleep or other reasons of desperation?

Mitigation has always existed in sentencing.

PepeParapluie · 19/06/2025 12:33

Newbutoldfather · 19/06/2025 12:29

I think this is a wrong headed and anti-feminist new law (of repealing of the old one).

Women, including pregnant women, are responsible for their actions. It is infantilisation to say anything else.

And the fact that no one on this thread would contemplate doing this ‘just because’ doesn’t mean no woman would. Most violent crimes aren’t committed by the type of person who types reasoned arguments on MN.

And why not decriminalise infanticide or any over stressed parent killing their toddler due to lack of sleep or other reasons of desperation?

Mitigation has always existed in sentencing.

And we have a powerful jury system with the ability to acquit if it feels it appropriate, which can provide an added safeguard in particularly extreme or unusual circumstances.

Grammarnut · 19/06/2025 12:37

Merrymouse · 19/06/2025 11:38

"What other reasons can there be for aborting a viable child at 40 weeks i.e. killing it in the womb rather than smothering it once it is born."

See above links to Sarah Catt case.

She induced labour at 39 weeks to conceal her affair - she took something to cause labour to start early - and women have been doing this for millenia and it is dangerous to mother and child. Strictly speaking she did not intend to abort, merely to have the child delivered in her H's absence. But the child was, she said, born dead. What if it had been born alive? How do we know it was not?
And why, once she had induced labour, did she not go to A & E? Presumably because she would have to say she had taken something to start labour?
Not sure her reasons for doing this are legitimate. Don't have an affair if you don't want to risk an unwanted pregnancy with your lover seems a reasonable position to hold.
I am not, btw, being judgemental about having an affair - but it seems reasonable to avoid pregnancy. Belt and braces probably, pill, condom, cap etc all used.

Merrymouse · 19/06/2025 12:43

Ethically, I wonder how this compares to the position that doctors are in?

We investigate doctors knowing that the investigation will be traumatic and that most of the time they will be cleared of any offence. (Not a doctor, so a bit hazy on when an investigation would be criminal and how often this happens).

Is the difference that pregnancy is often not within a woman's control, but people choose to be doctors?

Peacepleaselouise · 19/06/2025 12:53

This may be controversial but I think the intentional death in the womb of a healthy baby at term is a tragedy and should be a crime.

Where we draw that line is complexed and nuanced. The rights of the embryo should not be considered equal to the rights of an unborn baby at term. We absolutely should consider the rights of women and I am certainly not trying to row back abortion care.

But I think the vast majority of the British public would view a woman taking medication to kill her healthy baby at term as not something we should allow as a society.

Nameychangington · 19/06/2025 13:10

Hedgehogbrown · 19/06/2025 12:24

So why are abortions not performed after 24 weeks in the UK, unless for medical reasons? So you think an abortion should be carried out at, say, 35 weeks, because of the Mothers autonomy? There's a difference between allowing a Mother to keep her rights, which we have in the UK, and not treating a 35 week baby like something that can be killed slowly and discarded at the Mothers whim.

treating a 35 week baby like something that can be killed slowly and discarded at the Mothers whim.

You're telling on yourself. Literally no one has argued for slow killing or discarding on (silly fluff headed little womens) whim. Women having late term abortions aren't doing so on a whim, so offensive. They still have to labour and give birth. No one is doing that for shits and giggles, no one gets to 35 weeks and goes 'oh do you know what? Changed my mind, can't be fucked with this any more, I'll just pop a pill and then I can get back to clubbing and watching Love Island'. Your contempt for women is showing.

Foetuses don't have rights. Argue that's wrong if you like but that's the situation. Women aren't incubators and treating the situation as if the woman and the foetus are both equal people actually leads to women being treated as the lesser person, or not even a person, in the equation. You don't have to look far at other countries to see it.

Flustration · 19/06/2025 13:17

Peacepleaselouise · 19/06/2025 12:53

This may be controversial but I think the intentional death in the womb of a healthy baby at term is a tragedy and should be a crime.

Where we draw that line is complexed and nuanced. The rights of the embryo should not be considered equal to the rights of an unborn baby at term. We absolutely should consider the rights of women and I am certainly not trying to row back abortion care.

But I think the vast majority of the British public would view a woman taking medication to kill her healthy baby at term as not something we should allow as a society.

I would like to think that the majority of people believe that the intentional killing of a healthy, full term but unborn baby is ethically wrong.

What if the only legal method of abortion of a healthy, viable baby was induced birth in a medical setting so the baby could receive full medical care? The pregnancy is still terminated, but the baby is not.

Peacepleaselouise · 19/06/2025 13:21

Flustration · 19/06/2025 13:17

I would like to think that the majority of people believe that the intentional killing of a healthy, full term but unborn baby is ethically wrong.

What if the only legal method of abortion of a healthy, viable baby was induced birth in a medical setting so the baby could receive full medical care? The pregnancy is still terminated, but the baby is not.

I’m not sure if I’m understanding you.

The planned inducing of a baby for the health of the mother is an entirely different thing and wouldn’t come under termination law.

My relative had to have her much loved baby early in order to have urgent cancer treatment. The baby was well taken care of and is doing well. It’s not an abortion - illegal or legal.