Following her abortion experience, Munday became more active and vocal within the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA). This organisation had been founded in the 1930s but had not achieved its initial aims among its first generation of activists, being most active just before the outbreak of the
Second World War. At the next annual general meeting of the ALRA, Munday met
Madeleine Simms, an associate of the
Fabian Society (as the editor of
Fabian News) and fellow humanist, who shared her Jewish background, and together they would go on to become two of the most prominent faces of the ALRA. During this time period, Houghton doubled up as the Vice President of the
British Eugenics Society (later known as the Galton Institute) from 1964 to 1966, while her husband was a notable within the Fabian Society, who, in 1967 would become Chairman of the
Parliamentary Labour Party. With the ascent of the
Labour government in 1964 and the appointment of
Harold Wilson as the Prime Minister, the ALRA sent a delegation to
Frank Soskice, the new Home Secretary, requesting a change to the
abortion law. However, at the time, the
Labour Party was not at all unanimously supportive of abortion (not least because a significant element of Labour's voter base in urban areas were working-class Catholic
Irish diaspora who were strongly opposed to it, aside from a general taboo against abortion in society already) and the ALRA was told that this was a highly sensitive issue and that as there was no significant public demand, the government would not address it. A working party for the Bill was drawn up including Munday, Vera Houghton,
Peter Diggory, Glanville Williams, David Paintin, Lord Silkin and the 12 MP sponsors (including Steel,
Michael Winstanley,
John Dunwoody and
David Owen). Most of the wording was taken from the second Silkin Bill. Some amendments were made, but on the day the lobbying of
Alastair Service,
John Silkin (Lord Silkin's son),
George Sinclair and
Peter Jackson whipping MPs in favour of the Bill led to its success. As well as John Silkin, other key members of the Wilson government supported the Bill, including;
Roy Jenkins,
Kenneth Robinson and
Richard Crossman. Some aspects of the Bill were changed to try and get the
Church of England and
Church of Scotland to back it, much to the dismay of Munday and the ALRA. Eventually, the ALRA decided to back the Bill as being better than nothing, and it passed into legislation as the
Abortion Act 1967 after an all-night sitting on 27 October 1967. Munday and the ALRA activists stayed up all night to see the Bill pass through the
Houses of Parliament, sitting on Parliament terrace, overlooking the
River Thames. When it passed, her colleagues were celebrating with
champagne and strawberries, but she stated that "I only want half a glass because the job is only half done." Munday was disappointed with some key aspects of the Bill: firstly,
Northern Ireland was excluded from its effects (it being popular with neither the Catholic or Protestant communities there) and some of the concessions made for it to pass were uncomfortable for her. Two doctors were required to sign off on an abortion, rather than it being simply
abortion on demand, abortions had to be carried out at specific NHS facilities and the
Offences Against the Person Act 1861 was not actually repealed but simply legislated over, meaning that abortion was still technically a criminal offense, though provided a legal defence for those who perform them. == Other activities ==