Pro-choice organisation Handmaids Isle of Man has welcomed the draft Abortion Reform Bill published this week.

A consultation process has begun on Dr Alex Allinson’s private member’s bill and the Handmaids are urging everyone to take part.

One of the protestors described the bill as ’fantastic’, adding: ’It is really well written. Nice and clear for people to understand. It contains a lot of really important points that need raising.’

The provisions were ’well-measured’, she said. ’They are better than what is on offer in the UK, which is the very thing we want.’

Dr Allinson’s bill is designed to allow early access to counselling and abortion services. Up to 14 weeks, abortion would be available on request. For 15-24 weeks, it would be available if a woman’s life or health was in danger, or if the developing foetus had a fatal abnormality or a serious developmental defect.

After 24 weeks, termination would be allowed only if a termination was necessary to prevent ’grave permanent injury’ to the pregnant woman’s or the continued pregnancy posed a greater threat to her life than if the pregnancy was terminated; or if there was a ’substantial risk’ of the baby dying after birth or suffering a serious handicap.

Any termination after 14 weeks would require a medical practitioner ’in good faith’ to verify the risk.

The Handmaids first sprang to public notice on Tynwald Day when five women - dressed in the striking red outfits and veils of the characters in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale - made a silent protest with heads bowed. They chose the outfits as a symbol of restriction on women’s rights. In the novel - recently turned into a smash hit television series - women are subjugated, banned from reading books or holding bank accounts and forced into pregnancy to provide children for other couples.

The protestors retain anonymity, partly in keeping with the erosion of a woman’s individual identity in the book but also for fear of prejudice that might impact on their professional careers.

One area of the draft bill that might need addressing, said the Handmaid, was that it was gender specific.

’Trans men do get pregnant,’ she said. ’We are writing legislation for the future, perhaps it should not be gender specific.’

She said she did not want to get into a war of words with HEAR, but commented: ’They keep using the word regressive. You cannot regress to something you have never had.’

Urging everyone to take part in the consultation, she added: ’It is vital that everybody’s opinion is heard. We have had so much support as the Handmaids, these people have to fill in the consultation.’