To Keep Women Safe, Legislators must Assume the Worst - not the Best - of Men

History has shown us, time and time again, that men jump at the chance to wield the law as a weapon against women

In the UK, we are in the midst of impassioned legal debates, in which the benefits of certain options for one group are being weighed against the attendant risks for other groups.

The Assisted Dying Bill - which yesterday passed its first stage in Scotland, and which will be debated again in England tomorrow - is welcomed by campaign groups such as My Death, My Decision, who argue that ‘terminally ill adults [should be allowed] to make the compassionate choice to end their lives on their own terms.’ However, opponents argue that the Bill has ‘insufficient safeguards to protect some of the most marginalised in society, particularly women subjected to gender-based violence and abuse by a partner,’ and, if passed into law, could become ‘a new tool to harm vulnerable women.’

Another case in which benefits to one group are being weighed against detriments to another is last month’s ruling of the UK’s Supreme Court, who clarified that the word ‘woman’, as used in the 2010 Equality Act, refe…