Absolute Bodily Autonomy

I am a 57-year-old man, who is lucky enough to have been married to my wife of 30 years and 2 incredible daughters.  We were all of us live-in carers for my mother well into her 90s.   All I have ever done is to listen to the amazing women in my life. It therefore shocked us all when back in 2022, our MP, Tory Danny Kruger said in a debate on abortion that women do not have 'Absolute Right of Bodily Autonomy'.   He went on to say that MPs should not be "lecturing" United States over the Supreme Court's decision to remove rights to abortion.  The women in my life were furious.  They saw this as a healthcare right, something that should be fundamental, and here was our male MP throwing shade and doubt on this– seemingly based on his own religious beliefs. He then claimed our reaction was overblown and that Devizes, Marlborough and the nation at large had all misunderstood. Pure gaslight.

But Danny Kruger has also helpfully written a book (Covenant, the New Politics of Home Neighbourhood and Nation) where we find out more about what he really thinks.  He argues that the purpose of politics is the “cultivation of the conditions of virtue” and quoting John Milbank “that the right way to be human…is when we conform to some fairly traditional habits”. He goes on “We also believe that traditional habits are the best and only proper ground for freedom, tolerance…that the yearning for a more just, more free, more meaningful and moral society is a yearning for the past.” He nails this together with

“To make marriage what it should be – an equal enduring partnership – we have to acknowledge that its purpose is the regulation, the right ordering of sexual relations; that in theory at least, and certainly according to the messages we should give our children, marriage is the safest and best place for sex.”

Sex, for Danny is a matter of Conservative and public concern that should always be back behind closed doors and solely in marriage. Both parents should not work, but if they do it should be part time.  He just about forgives same-sex marriages, and single parents – but you can hear the grit in his teeth.

He variously explores his opposition to the Equality Act, the ECHR, his deference to the past, the promotion of patriotism, the importance of grammar, and that too many people have left home and gone to university.

Danny is another traditionalist looking backwards for answers.  I am looking forwards.  I want to make things only better and fairer.  We have gone so far in making so many things better for the oppressed, the dispossessed, the marginalised, the forgotten.  We have imperfectly sought to give equality, balance and fairness to race, gender cultures and identities.  Not without getting things wrong on the way but progress all the same.  As a liberal, I always seek to emphasise the struggle for freedom of the individual – all women, all men, all humans, and look to consign Danny Kruger’s views to the history books they came from.