tions is ended. Central Criminal Court today."
Thus begins the report of a local paper on the plight of a woman who talled to get an But when did this incident occur? Was it in the dark days before the liberal awakening of the 1967 Act? No, this tragic death occurred only last vear. on 17 November. in south London. nearly ten years after the passing of the Act.
This is a glaring example of the inadequacies which still exist in the provision of abortion facilities. We might have come a long way since the pre-1967 days when this kind of incident was a regular occurrence, but we also have a long way to go before the suffering and frustration endured by women attempting to obtain aborWe have succeeded in building a strong and representative movement to defend our gains and to fight for better facilities up and down the country - the kind of movement that can launch for out-patient facilities, that *Backstreet abortion kills woman: Ms. Pamela Slater aged 23 died from an illegal £40 abortion carried out with the stem of a plastic flower, it was alleged in the organisations who have sponsored the Tribunat have actively rejected Cine Select Committee and, now, the Benyon Bill, to attack our abortion rights and that prepared to take action in defence of them.
When the idea of the Tribunal was first raised it was seen as a labour movement action which would act as an alternative to the rump Select Committee. The Tribunal produce evidence about the abortion facilities up and down the country, and at the same time establish what the actual needs of women are and how we can fight for provisions to meet those needs.
Evidence that has come in so far shows that what happened to the woman in South London should come as no surprise. blackspots in the country.
conference resolutions.
We say sponsor attemots on this Amey are would attempt anti-abortion MPs in inere are ten rea where an average of national campaign abortion within their branches However, in order to really defend ourselves against the Benyon Bill we must begin galvanise these local and sporadic actions into a national campaign. The Tribunal is supported by four national unions -ASTMS, NUPE, TASS and MPU. This must be more than paper support. The trade union movement at a national and local level must be forced to take action on this issue and in line with the TUC and Labour Party anti-abortion MPs Bill, is an ASTMS must be removed if they go against union polic about these MPs Which is being brought to the The information evidence Tribunal must be used to build local campaigns and lobbies of MPs on a national basis before the second reading of the Bill on 25 February.
Members of the Labour for Abortion Rights Committee should build active caucuses locally to fight inside the Labour Party for the removal of conjunction with onel pro-abortion forces in their area.
Meetings should be organised in trade unions and Labour Party branches and public meetings should be held to report on the findings of the Tribunal and expose the nature of the present attacks on abortion rights. Such activities should be used to alert the local labour movement and to consolidate those people wh actively opposed the James Wnite Bil as part of start building for the