Dr Roslyn Fuller says electoral arithmetic makes abortion politically tough to tackleIt’s hardly news on openDemocracy to say the usual model of western representative government is under siege. Divisive campaigns, stained by fake news and dark money, are yielding disputed outcomes and bitterly split electorates. General elections and other votes seem ever less free or fair, if indeed they ever were. Many of the resulting administrations are mired in disarray, just as levels of public trust in both politicians and news media fall through the floor.
What chance, then, for reasoned debate and political compromise between people with widely divergent views on a highly contentious and sensitive topic? What hope, dare anyone ask, of something resembling “democracy”?
Not a cat’s chance, you might think. Well, you’d be wrong, at least in one, real-life instance.
