https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ireland-dublin-repeal-the-eighth-amendment-referendum-crowdfund-travel-abroad-a8368726.html
I was in Dublin during the launch of the abortion referendum, and was completely winded when a man in a T-shirt with a picture of a foetus and the words, “Licence to kill”, verbally attacked me on O’Connell street. It unleashed an avalanche of painful memories.
When I was 16, I had a secret whip 'round to pay for a friend to go to
London for an abortion. When drinking neat spirits and taking scalding hot
baths didn't terminate her pregnancy, she became suicidal.
We scraped together enough to pay for the abortion itself and Aine's
(not her real name) fare, but it didn’t stretch to accommodation so she slept
on the floor at Victoria bus station. She had to make that agonising journey
across the Irish Sea, alone.
The image of Aine, so tiny and vulnerable, beneath the giant, forbidding
steam ship at Dublin docks - on a dank, drizzly day, still haunts me. She had
never been away from home before. I remember feeling ashamed of living in a
country that subjected women to such punitive indignity.
This week, I helped fund another teenage girl's
voyage across the sea - going in the opposite direction. She's going home today
to vote "yes", in a bid to repeal the barbaric 8th amendment, which enshrines
misogyny into the Irish constitution.
In 2018, even in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality,
abortion remains illegal in Ireland. Over
170,000 Irish women have travelled to Britain for abortions in the 35 years
since the inception of the 8th amendment. Around 12 women and girls take that
lonely voyage across the sea, every day, to end their pregnancies.
But travelling overseas is not an option for everyone. Teenage girls on
the estate I grew up on can’t afford to go abroad. Many buy abortion pills
online, risking their lives and incurring a custodial sentence.
The anti-choice propagandists are warning that, with “a licence to
kill”, there’ll be pop up abortion clinics on every high street, from Bantry to
Ballyjamesduff, offering two for the price of one and free subscriptions to Abortion Weekly.
As a therapist, I’ve worked with women who have had abortions and the
decision is never taken lightly. Girls in Ireland, having been violently
impregnated by rape, face the added trauma of being forced to give birth to
their abuser’s baby. In case x, when a 14 year
old girl was impregnated by rape and became suicidal, a court injunction was
taken out preventing her parents from taking her abroad for an abortion.
The anti-abortion rhetoric is imbued with the dogma of the Catholic Church,
but an institution so mired in paedophilic scandals, is in no position to
lecture women on the sanctity of life. Only last year, the remains of almost 800
babies were discovered “dumped” in a septic tank on the
grounds of a convent in Galway.
In
2012, the needless death of Savita
Halappanavar shamed the nation. She died of blood
poisoning after being refused an abortion, even though her baby had a fatal foetal
abnormality. “This is a catholic country!”, she was told. A change in the law
in 2013, purportedly to allow abortions if the mother’s life is at risk or if
she’s suicidal, has proved shockingly inadequate.
In
2014, a clinically
dead
woman was kept alive on a life-support machine, against her family’s wishes, to
protect the life of her unborn child. Last year, a 14 year old suicidal child
was sectioned by her doctor when she sought permission, with her mother’s
approval, for an abortion. But, instead of admitting that the girl was being
sent to a psychiatric hospital, the doctor told them that she would undergo an abortion.
Despite acknowledging the child was suicidal, due to her pregnancy, he denied
her the legal right to a termination and tricked her into being sectioned.
Last year, the UN ruled, for the second
time, that Ireland's harsh abortion
laws violate human rights. A woman carrying a foetus with a fatal abnormality
was, it stated, subjected to, “discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment”. The woman had to travel abroad for an abortion, but
was forced to leave her foetus’ remains behind. Weeks later, the
ashes were delivered by courier. The UN has called for the 8th
amendment to be repealed, to allow women to terminate a pregnancy safely, at
home.
The church has exerted undue jurisdiction
over women’s wombs - and our lives – for far too long. By repealing the 8th
today, we transfer the deeds back to their rightful owners – the women of
Ireland.
Polls are open until 10pm tonight!
Polls are open until 10pm tonight!