The First Freedom: Autonomy of the Body

If you cannot respect another person’s right to do with their body as they please, liberalism has no place for you.

Most people who consider themselves liberals will consider a (usually unspoken) list of rights they hold sacred.  Freedom of speech is usually the first to come to mind.  But what about the others?  The right to a fair trial?  The right to privacy?  The right to own property?

While often rarely cited, we passionately believe bodily autonomy is the right that is foundational to all others, thus we, as liberals, have a duty to defend it.  Although we must defend a wide plethora of human rights, including a core commitment to freedom of expression, we must, however, be clear: free speech should never be used as a justification to undermine other fundamental liberal values.  This includes, above all else, our right to bodily autonomy and the freedom to define our own identities.  But rights don’t exist in isolation; they are always tested in the tension between individual freedom and state control.

To understand the liberal commitment to bodily autonomy, we can contrast it with a more conservative principle: paternalism.  Paternalists claim that the State should determine what people can and cannot do with their bodies.  This is most glaring in the United States, where attacks on abortion rights are justified under the guise of ‘protecting the rights of the unborn’, and gender-affirming care for minors is (being increasingly restricted) in state legislatures across the country, reflecting an increasing desire of the State to exert control and insist that kids and their parents do not know best.

In the UK, paternalism takes subtler forms—often cloaked in the rhetoric of so-called “gender critical” activism, found across all political parties, including our own.  It also manifests in outdated legal structures: for example, many are unaware that under current UK law, even with the decriminalisation of abortion, a pregnant woman must still obtain the approval of two doctors in order to access a safe and sanitary abortion.   This is control wearing a convenient freedom-shaped disguise.

Paternalism insists that bodily autonomy can—and should—be curtailed in the so-called “best interests” of the individual, whether that be women, children, or unborn foetuses. Liberalism rejects this logic. Our tradition has always sought to expand the scope of individual freedom, not narrow it. Take abortion: many opponents frame it in moral absolutes, but restricting a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body does nothing to reduce the number of abortions—it only makes them less safe. I am conscious of the precariousness of two trans women talking about abortion, a choice we ourselves will never be faced with. But precisely because of that, I believe we have a duty to listen, to stand alongside cisgender women, and to defend their right to choose without interference. The liberal response is not to control, but to support: creating strong social safety nets for parents, making it possible to raise children without fear of poverty or isolation, and ensuring that no one is punished for making very human choices.

Liberalism must aim to build a culture where bodily autonomy is respected as a right, and where the systems around us are designed to make exercising that right possible. Just as pregnancy must be the decision of the mother, transitioning must be the decision of the trans person. 

Paternalism tends to ignore that if one doesn’t have total control over their body, other rights and protections often count for little.   For example, the long-held right of freedom from torture is precisely because your body is your own and no one has the right to ‘violate the sanctity of one’s own vessel’.   This is also why liberals have historically avidly campaigned for the right to abortion, no matter what one’s religious or personal views on the subject say.   Similarly, the lack of access to trans healthcare faced by many thousands of trans people of all ages demonstrates a clear violation of one’s body.   Forcing someone to live inside of a body they are in deep discomfort with is a policy position—and one that is deeply cruel.   Liberals all agree that torture is inhumane and fundamentally wrong.   But what needs to be remembered is that for a trans person, not transitioning is not a neutral act, and could be argued to amount to torture.  Liberals should find this abhorrent.  

We should be leading the fight to ensure trans individuals have access to gender-affirming care in a safe, supportive, and timely environment.  Liberals around the world have passionately campaigned against the violation of bodies, whether that be towards pregnant people, prisoners of authoritarian regimes or those victim to actions of totalitarian government.  To be truly liberal, we must fight the same fight for the rights of the trans and non-binary community.

At Spring Conference 2025, the Liberal Democrats passed, in a very comfortable majority, a landmark policy packet which reaffirmed the Party’s firm support for the LGBTQ+ community.  This continues our party’s tradition of upholding LGBTQ+ freedoms — including abolishing Section 28 and legislating for equal marriage in 2014.  Since the Supreme Court ruled in April on the rights of trans women under the Equality Act, the trans and non-binary community has faced unprecedented levels of discrimination and hate from right-wing social conservatives, yet the Lib Dems remain one of few parties not to side against the fundamental human rights of trans and non-binary people.  Perhaps now is the time for our party to celebrate who we are—our liberal commitment to the rights of self-identification and bodily autonomy, and become powerful allies to trans people of all genders.

Bodily autonomy needs to be reframed. It isn’t a fringe issue—it’s the first freedom.  Without it, all other rights are fragile illusions.  A liberalism that doesn’t centre the right to control your own body is no liberalism at all.  Whether it’s the right to abortion, the right to transition, or the right to live free from coercion, we must draw a clear line: your body is your own, and no state, politician, or pundit has the right to claim otherwise.  If we want to call ourselves liberals, then this is the fight.  There is no true freedom without it.

* 'Tara Foster is a member of the English Council and LGBT+ Lib Dems co-Policy Officer' 'Esther (aka. 'Bex') Foulsham is a co-Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion Officer in the Young Liberals, and a member of the LGBT+ Lib Dems Executive'