Monday, November 18, 2019 - 11:50 Leo Olivero

The Abortion referendum on the 19 March next year or in 3 months time will mark a huge change in social thinking and our progression as a society. Though not everyone thinks that way particularly those people on the other side of the abortion debate.

This report will take no side or discuss the merits of the issue itself. Although I will say that personally, my progressive mind is probably an indication of my opinion on the debate.

Social Focus

However, I do intend to highlight and focus in the manner our society has moved forward in tackling some very sticky and controversial taboo issues that would never have been in the public arena 20 or 25 years ago.

For who would have expected Gibraltar to accept gay marriage for instance, though there is a fundamental difference between gay rights and abortion. For while the former is seen as a measure aimed at making a category of people happier without any detriment to anyone else, many argue that abortion involves the taking away of a potential life. But still the point I’m making is there, that these issues are now in the open!

In my opinion, where the abortion debate and the March referendum is concerned it has galvanised the secularisation of social mores from those in past decades. Liberal thinkers and believers are more confident in tackling the abortion issue, even though pro-choice views are still shunned by a much lesser amount of people. The big difference being that activists are no longer ostracised for expressing their views. The sheer formation of a pro-choice movement with identifiable and respectable faces has served as an encouragement for others to commit themselves, which they have!

In the course of these ongoing debates on abortion much has been said about issues of social justice and equity. Although there is the important aspect of the debate that also has much to do with moral principles.

Without doubt we have also certainly changed as a people, like in many other places no doubt, just look around and note how our society has developed and grown in size with so many construction sites and buildings sprouting up which has transformed Gibraltar also in the last 15 or 20 years.