Oral History and Abortion: (Re)Creating English Antiabortion Narratives

This article outlines the context and significance of David Alton’s bill in the late 1980s within the wider context of abortion reform in England, and addresses the methodological concerns around insider/outsider interview dynamics and issues of individual memory and analogy. This article considers how both hindsight and current perspectives on abortion help alter the narratives on the Alton Bill and antiabortion campaigning more broadly; it argues that there is a fundamental incompatibility, demonstrated by this case study, between parliamentary abortion reform and antiabortion ideology.