Fairly balanced article on abortion - 40 year anniversary for UK

Fiona MacGregor does a nice job. I especially like the way she illustrated that most people have an hypocritical view when it comes to abortion, no matter how good their intentions. Turns out I fall firmly into the hypocritical camp.

"But while the debate over abortion rages on, it is vital we do not lose sight of the bigger picture. We live in a society where sex before and outwith marriage is the norm and where the average person in Britain has had – depending on their generation and gender – between eight and 13 sexual partners, and around half of the adult population has had a one-night stand.

And while everyone has a responsibility to ensure they have safe sex, the failure rate of contraception is far higher than most people realise. Given that, according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, almost 60 per cent of women requesting abortion claim to have been using (or attempting to use) contraception at the time they became pregnant, it wouldn't be unrealistic to conclude most people in this country have at some point put themselves in a position that could have led to an unwanted pregnancy.

Yet women who have unplanned pregnancies continue to face prejudice and condemnation, however they deal with it. Raise your hand if you think that women who have children by several different fathers – such as Fiona MacKeown, the much-criticised mother of murdered teenager Scarlett Keeling – are immoral and/or irresponsible and should be censured by society. Raise your hand if you think abortion raises serious moral concerns and should be avoided where possible.

Finally, raise your hand if you have had more than two sexual partners of the opposite gender (now refer back to the statistics on failed contraception). Thank you for taking part in my poll on hypocrisy and mixed messages when it comes attitudes to abortion in the 21st century."

Brilliant. Call me a hypocrite. More than two sexual partners, most of whom I would not have wanted to raise a child with yet I also think that some abortions are problematic and should be avoided where possible.

Yes, I do think there should be less abortions and I'm more rabidly prochoice than most. I don't have a moral problem with abortion, I simply think it is something to be avoided if at all possible. Abortions should be avoided for the same reasons one might avoid having a tooth removed - it is painful, often expensive, and carries the chance of unwanted complications.

Experiencing an unplanned pregnancy should be like having a car accident, it should be bad luck. No one is immune to bad luck, no matter how safe their sex or responsible their driving. I'm very forgiving of terminations due to bad luck.

So why, given that I'm all fine with terminations due to bad luck, do I think there should be less abortions? Because in my early university days I knew a woman who used abortion as a form of birth control: "The pill turns me into a monster and I don't like condoms." True, it was just one woman, but this one woman was so utterly complacent and everyday about it that it got me to wondering how many other young women were terminating pregnancies rather than using contraception. Personally, I cannot fathom why surgery or poisoning is an attractive alternative to latex. I did not understand why this woman thought that removing her unwanted pregnancies was a good use of a doctor's time given the length of our public hospital waiting lists. Having gone through the experience myself, I did not understand how she could casually treat her body in that way. I still don't. I think I never will.

So, if there are women out there using abortion INSTEAD of contraception, then there are pregnancies being terminated that stood a good chance of being prevented in the first place. That's too many abortions as far as I'm concerned. As far as the publicly funded medical community is concerned it's a waste of money, time and resources. As for the woman? a termination may be marginally safer than giving birth but using a condom is better for her body by a long shot.

It's funny, but I feel judgmental and hypocritical just writing this. Don't I want abortion to be safe, legal, and free for anyone who wants one? Yes, yes I do. But I don't want it to be an alternative to contraception.