Nadine Dorries: down and (hopefully) out
Anti-abortion campaigners of Nadine Dorries‘ kind should look elsewhere this morning if they’re after a little magnanimity in the face of their defeat. Their campaign to lower the 24 week limit on abortion was based on little more than tawdry emotional blackmail, smears and downright demonstrable lies.
I joked all along that Dorries’ plan of attack was so cack-handed, transparently dishonest and easily disassembled that I thought she was a plant for the other side. She probably did more to rally pro-abortion sentiment than any other figure. Her final humiliation was her being called all but a liar on the floor of the House of Commons last night*.
You have to wonder, now that the abortion issue is out of the way for a while, just how much further influence Nadine Dorries and her Islam-hating Christian fundamentalist friends will have in wider politics. Having seen them up close we’re now innoculated. We’re now immune.
The next time Dorries pops up on any issue, people will Google her name and be met with chapter and verse of how she operates when it comes to matters of substance. A cooler, much more honest and less shrill head might have got closer to her aim. I hope that’s just one of the aftertastes of the sour grapes she’s no doubt chewing this morning.
For me, one of the most galling parts of this whole debate has been the fact that the anti-abortion argument as put by the likes of Dorries was, almost entirely, beneath her opponents. Anti-scientific, untruthful and ever-shifting, these were arguments that we shouldn’t have had to deal with. And yet there we were.
I get enough whining petulance from people who can’t see reason when I tell my daughters to turn off Doctor Who and send them to bed of an evening. To see it during a debate on such an important matter as women’s access to abortion was, frankly, demeaning.
(Much of the blogging during all this has been fantastic. Go and hunt through the blogs of Tim Ireland, Ministry of Truth, Liberal Conspiracy, Bookdrunk…)
* Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “She has asserted many things as fact which are not this evening.”
Posted on May 21st, 2008 at 8:47 am
| See also • Abortion again again • links for 2008-05-06 • Surrounded |
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Anyone who thinks that Nadine Dorries is the sole source of opposition to the 24-week limit is really missing the point. The arguments in favour of lowering the limit go a long way beyond her debatable evidence.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
I think you’re missing the point. If ‘the arguments in favour of lowering the limit go a long way beyond her debatable evidence’ why haven’t we seen them? Somebody at Tory Headquarters gave Dorries the blessing to spearhead the campaign or we wouldn’t have seen as much of her. David Cameron voted for her amendment. If she wasn’t the only show in town, where were the others?
I take your point that this debate was very narrow, something which I think is extremely regrettable given the serious nature of the topic. Nadine Dorries presented evidence which in some areas has looked very contentious, but she didn’t spend enough time looking at issues such as the approach taken by other European countries, the personal experiences of people who have had abortions and survival rates in a broader context (Dizzy had a superb post on this).
In short, I think the campaign to lower the abortion limit was absolutely right but was not executed well.
[...] more than tawdry emotional blackmail, smears and downright demonstrable lies” as Justin put it. That despite this the anti-abortion proposals were rejected and the governmental proposals to [...]
Justin,
Yes, the supporters of women’s reproductive debates have won the debate, conclusively. We’ve shown up Dorries as a compulsive liar advancing a sinister agenda, we’ve shown the Tories not to be as “libertarian” as they try to be/think they are, we’ve beaten back the moralisers who want to turn this country into America.
But I fear that the majority of people, who “read” the Sun and the Daily Mail, will cast their majority vote for ill-informed bigotry as they so often do. And MPs will vote to increase state power over women’s bodies. Regrettably, the majority of people do not read Ministry of Truth or The Devil’s Kitchen!
This battle is not won. It might be lost. But we will win the war for secular liberal democracy against the reactionaries & bigots. This is 2008, not 2008 BC. Only it will take a lot more fighting on our behalf.
asquith’s latest blog post… Channeling Robert Johnson
That should be “women’s reproductive rights”, obviously.
asquith’s latest blog post… Channeling Robert Johnson
Being a bloke I don’t feel I have much of a right to an opinion about this one.
Having done the rounds of the comments pages and a few blogs over the last few days, I only wish that rather more men took the same view. Smug self-righteousness on all sides, from the “moral argument” lot on one side to the “right to choose” brigade on the other, with only a few rare exceptions that admit the insane complexity of the situation - because, let’s face it, the idea of abortion is deeply, deeply unpleasant whether you’re pro-choice or “pro-life”, religious or atheist.
In fact, the only comment with which I can agree wholeheartedly (that I’ve seen) is this one beneath Sunny’s CiF piece.
Still, Dorries does seem to be a deeply confused/dishonest woman - I do hope you’re right about this discrediting her before she can get anywhere with real influence and put the Tories off chasing the nutty religious demographic. (There can’t be many votes there, surely? What on earth could they be thinking to let her take the lead?)
Nosemonkey’s latest blog post… Travel articles for Heritage magazine*
Being a bloke I don’t feel I have much of a right to an opinion about this one.
You have a wife don’t you? You might have a daughter some day. I very much hope not but they might need your advice and guidance and support on an issue like this one day.
That’s where I declare my interest - I don’t want the likes of Dorries dictating to the women in my life what they can and can’t do with their own bodies.
The wife tells me I’m a bloke, so I don’t have a right to have an opinion on this one… She and I are also very much of the opinion that religious dogma has no place in any sensible political decision-making process (or any sensible political system, for that matter).
However, if pushed I’d say that the religious lot are a bit confused at best - if God wanted us to be born by slicing open a woman’s abdomen, ripping us from the womb, and then whacking us in a life support machine for several months, then surely he’d have made us that way from day one? He did, however, provide us with pointy sticks from day one (now there’s a lovely image) - as well as decree that all unbaptised children and foetuses - including those that die in childbirth or as miscarriages - go to hell/purgatory. Because God’s an absolute arsehole who it’s best to have nothing to do with.
(Religious types are like beaten wives - “yes, yes he did cause war, disease and famine - and yes, he does frequently kill thousands through earthquakes, fires and floods - but he loves me really…”)
On a semi-related note - has anyone done a breakdown of how the female MPs voted? I’d be intrigued to see if there’s any significant difference in male/female opinion in the Commons on this one.
Nosemonkey’s latest blog post… Nosemonkey is not dead, honest
Nosemonkey - there’s an article in the Guardian indicating that most MPs voted along party lines re. the amendments, so - anecdotally - I’d be surprised if there were any pro-choice female Tory MPs (let’s face it, there aren’t that many female Tory MPs…), while on the other hand, Ruth Kelly would be the most prominent anti-abortion female Labour MP (and one day she’s going to have to choose between her conscience and a cabinet post…).
Oh, and I seem to have missed the /blog bit off my address - that shows just how little I’ve been knocking around blogland of late… Whoops…
Nosemonkey’s latest blog post… Nosemonkey is not dead, honest