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Friday Diary: Shelagh Goes All Ann Widdecombe

Shelagh Fogarty on the failings of the Abortion Act and why it's best to call her Ms.

By Shelagh Fogarty

24 Feb 2012, 10:06

* The most moving interview I did this week was with Christina Lamb, the Sunday Times Foreign Correspondent whose friend and colleague,  Marie Colvin, was killed two days ago in Syria. I'd spoken to her before, shortly after the death of Benazir Bhutto, assassinated during a political campaign which Christina Lamb was covering. This conversation was different. She counted both women as friends but it was clear that she had a deep seated affection and admiration for Marie Colvin and took great care to try to explain why she put herself in such danger. It's easy to dismiss the idea of vocation in war reporting and pass it off as some form of unhealthy compulsion but Lamb, and in turn, the BBC Reporter Jim Muir, represented their friend faithfully when I spoke to them on air on Wednesday. She knew the deeper she went into a war zone the more likely she would be harmed. She suffered, physically and emotionally - Muir spoke of a period of post traumatic stress- and yet with warning bells ringing in her ears she wouldn't ignore the pull to those dangerous places. Why? Because these stories must be told. Earlier atrocities in Syria came to light over decades simply because nobody witnessed them but the victims. Marie Colvin said someone had to come back from these places with what she called "the first draft of History". I've thought more and differently about Syria since she died and I'm just one person. Futile and empty though her death might feel to her friends and family, my guess is it won't be. A spirit that big requires a response.

 

* Do we need a more honest Abortion Act in the UK? The Telegraph's exposé this week of some clinics would suggest we do. One Doctor, registered by the Care Quality Commission to practise in a Manchester Clinic, is alleged to have authorised an abortion on the grounds of the baby's sex and to have said "I don't ask questions. If you want a termination you want a termination." This falls so far outside the 1967 Act it's on another planet. Only it isn't if a senior figure in the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynocologists is to be believed. Dr Tony Falconer told Five Live it's highly likely that such abortions are carried out in the UK when the sex of the baby is causing distress to the mother. She would qualify for an abortion under the provision for psychological stress. I don't doubt some women, perhaps especially those whose culture places an absurd value on the sex of its children,  feel enormous pressure (even danger) because of that but there are so many new and ever changing lines being drawn all over the 1967 Abortion Act in practise as to nullify it. Hands up if you've ever found out you're pregnant and felt stress as a result? Quite. On that basis the queues are going to be very long indeed.

 

* It seems the French are to do away with "Mademoiselle".  No, that's not a line from Inspector Poirot but a plan to make all adult females Madame. The former, say campaigners, suggests availability. France's equivalent to Maiden Name - nom de jeune fille - might be toast too because it points to notions of virginity, they say.  Despite being a graduate of the world' s most beautiful language, sadly I don't know the French for poppycock!! I'm not even sure I know the English for poppycock but poppycock it is (yes this IS my Ann Widdecombe impression).  I'm a Miss not a Ms but more to the point I'm an adult so able to handle questions about my status should they arise. If I think the question is legitimate I answer politely and truthfully. If I judge it to be unreasonable or plain rude I make sport of the perpetrator. Try it. It's much more fun than a government edict.