Hadia Tajik warns of a fight against abortion changes
Deputy Leader of Labour, Hadia Tajik announces a fight against changes to the Norwegian Abortion Act. She believes that everyone should be allowed to vote according to their conscience.
Tajik is not ready to stop the fight against changes to the Abortion Act after the Christian Democrats (KrF) achieved a victory regarding the possibility of foetus reduction in cases involving healthy tuplets.
“It is an extremely brutal strain they are now placing on women carrying multiple foetuses. The alternative these women now face is to have to remove or keep all,” Tajik tells Dagsavisen.
Dispute whether a law change is required
It is disputed if the tightening of the Act actually requires a change in it and therefore must go up to Parliament. Kjersti Toppe (Centre Party) believes that the change can be done without a legislative amendment, while the Leder of Labour, Jonas Gahr Støre, is adamant that the issue must be handled by the Norwegian Parliament.
Minister of Health and Deputy Leader of the Conservatives, Bent Høie, agrees, but according to him, the opponents in the four-party Government have to vote in favour.
“This is in the Government platform. All the parties have agreed to this, and then everybody must vote in favour,” Høie tells Dagsavisen.
Release due to conscience
Tajik, on the other hand, hopes that the Conservatives, who have a tradition of releasing their own parliamentary representatives in matters of conscience, will do so this time around as well.
I notice that none of the Government parties has responded to whether they want to release their representatives, but it will surprise me if the women’s movement in the Conservatives will not rock the boat and watch Erna Solberg negotiate away their victories from their National Assembly, Tajik ponders. She believes release is the only possibility to thwart the legislative amendment.
The Progress Party supports cleanup
The Progress Party’s Health Policy Spokesperson, Åshild Bruun-Gundersen, emphasises that their representatives are released in matters such as the Abortion Act, but that the party supports a spring cleaning of the regulations.
The Ministry of Justice concluded in 2016 that the right to self-determined abortion up to twelve weeks of pregnancy also includes the right to reduce the number of foetuses in cases involving tuplets. A ban on this will, therefore, require a change to the Abortion Act, they assert.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
