Abortion is an issue of conscience for the Labour party. But my personal views on a woman's right to choose have never wavered. The right to have an abortion is something today's teenagers take for granted, like the internet. Many don't know that this is a right that was won in their mothers' lifetimes. And that the price of this particular freedom is eternal vigilance. But that is why I will be pleased to be at the pro-choice rally being held tomorrow outside parliament.

It is important that abortion is a matter of personal conscience for politicians in this country. Nobody wants to descend to the level of the debate in the US. There abortion is intensely party-political. Anti-abortion members of Congress try to get money withdrawn from women's health services, even when government money is not actually spent on abortions, because with other monies these services are providing abortions. In other words, they are happy for women's health services generally to be slashed to make a partisan point. Anti-abortion activists demonstrate outside abortion clinics. And in some cases they have hunted down and slaughtered doctors who perform abortions. Calling themselves "pro-life" in these circumstances may seem ironic. But rabid anti-abortion sentiment has proved to be a relatively successful card for rightwing politicians in the US. And the danger is that some rightwingers here in Britain may want to learn from that particular playbook.

There is no frontal assault on a woman's right to choose here in Britain. But there are disturbing trends that would whittle away at it. There are reports of cuts in contraception, sexual health and teen pregnancy services and increasing waits for abortions as the NHS comes under increasing financial strain. There is the appointment of the anti-choice group Life to the government's sexual health advisory panel. There is the attempt to promote abstinence as an alternative to contraception. One of the bizarre things about this particular proposal is that the abstinence advice will only be given to girls. Presumably they get pregnant without the aid of a male.

And there is a new proposal, which it seems the government hopes to slip through without a vote, to offer additional counselling to women seeking abortion. This is based on the totally false notion that women are being denied information on the medical and physical side-effects of abortion. Worse, it is wrapped up in a fundamentally anti-right-to-choose rhetoric which depicts clinics that perform abortions as baby-killing production lines that are only in it for the money.

I believe every abortion is a tragedy. And I think that the number of teenage girls seeking abortion gives rise to concern. But the answer to teenage pregnancy is: better sexual health education and addressing these young women's low sense of self-esteem. It is also important to address an increasingly sexualised popular culture which encourages young women to believe that the way to fame and fortune is to inject their breasts and/or bottoms with silicone. Limiting a women's right to choose does nothing to address the root causes of teenage pregnancy.

So I will be at the demonstration on Saturday. The government needs to know that, if it comes for women's rights over their own bodies, women are prepared to stand together.