Of course the whole matter of "the right to choose" is one where men are in a sense always on the sideline, since it isn’t a right that can ever apply to them.

The question whether such a right can exist is at the heart of this debate. Only if it is false to say that abortion entails ending the life of a human being can such a right exist.

Of course many would say that it is false to say a human life is ended in an abortion. In that case, and only in that case, other matters become relevant, such as, what, if any, limits should there be on that right.

There is another way of approaching it, which is purely utilitarian. Leave aside talk of abstractions like human rights, whether a "right to choose" or a "right to life", or any talk about ethics, and try to work out what legal structure relating to pregnancy are on balance better for society. That's not an approach with which I have ever been comfortable with, in any context, though I can see why some people like it. And of course it’s not the approach taken by campaigners in this referendum on either side, so far as I can see.