Ireland – Abortion campaigners hail ‘historic day’ but eye changes

Abortion campaigners hail ‘historic day’ but eye changes
Activists celebrate but urge full decriminalisation and removal of three-day wait period

Dec 13, 2018
Jennifer Bray

Ailbhe Smyth heard around 4pm that there was a possibility that legislation clearing the way for abortion in Ireland could pass earlier than the expected 10pm finishing time.

She hopped on a Luas and headed to the city centre to make her way to Leinster House. Following years of effort, this was not a moment to miss. She was not alone.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/abortion-campaigners-hail-historic-day-but-eye-changes-1.3730715

Ireland: The Abortion Bill passes the first house

FEATURE - Ireland: The Abortion Bill passes the first house
**********************************
International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion.
11 December 2018

Abortion bill passed by a large majority

On 6 December 2018, the lower house of the Irish parliament passed the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill at midnight with a vote of 90 for, 15 against, and 12 abstentions, after hours of debate and consideration of 60 amendments, almost all of which were voted down with large majorities. Minister of Health Simon Harris remained in strict control throughout the process, rejecting amendments by pro-choice members to make the bill less restrictive and by conservative/anti-abortion members to make it more restrictive, claiming throughout that he was determined to give the people the bill he promised before the referendum on the 8th Amendment to the Constitution in May. A small number of conservative members fought till the end, talking at length each amendment. Then, finally, it was passed. It moved the very next morning to the upper house. Ivana Bacik, a Labour Party member in the upper house, said she thought it very likely that the bill would become law before the holiday recess later this month.

Continued: https://mailchi.mp/safeabortionwomensright/feature-ireland-the-abortion-bill-passes-the-first-house-11-december-2018?e=372dd34034

Irish Lawmakers Vote to Allow Abortion, Part of Landmark Liberal Shift

Irish Lawmakers Vote to Allow Abortion, Part of Landmark Liberal Shift

By Ed O’Loughlin
Dec. 6, 2018

DUBLIN — Fighting off last-ditch resistance, Irish lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill introducing free and legal abortion to a nation that was long a bastion of staunchly conservative Catholicism, seven months after voters repealed a constitutional ban on abortion.

An often heated session of the Parliament’s lower house on Wednesday had to be extended several times, as a small number of members — mainly independent conservatives — talked at length on dozens of amendments, almost all of which were voted down by large majorities. The bill’s opponents attempted to prolong the debate even further, which could have derailed the government’s plan to make abortion available in January.

continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/world/europe/ireland-legal-abortion-vote.html

‘Ball and chain’ of Irish abortion ban finally gone, Clare Daly says

‘Ball and chain’ of Irish abortion ban finally gone, Clare Daly says
TD applauded by colleagues after impassioned speech during first Dáil sitting since referendum

May 29, 2018
Marie O'Halloran

Independents4Change TD Clare Daly became emotional in the Dáil on Tuesday as she described the abortion referendum result as “an enormous weight being lifted”.

In an impassioned speech which received a round of applause from TDs, Ms Daly said it was a “ball and chain that dogged us all our adult life being finally gone”.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/ball-and-chain-of-irish-abortion-ban-finally-gone-clare-daly-says-1.3512917

Savita’s Law? Pro-choice groups back call from family to name abortion legislation after her

Savita's Law? Pro-choice groups back call from family to name abortion legislation after her

David Young, Rachel Farrell and Laura Larkin
May 27 2018

PRO-CHOICE campaigners have backed calls for Ireland's new abortion laws to be named after Savita Halappanavar, the expectant mother who died after being refused a termination.

The Together for Yes coalition said the gesture would recognise the "great debt" the Irish people owed to Savita, the 31-year-old Indian dentist who died in a Galway hospital after doctors refused to perform an abortion as she miscarried.

Continued: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/abortion-referendum/savitas-law-prochoice-groups-back-call-from-family-to-name-abortion-legislation-after-her-36950926.html

How the Yes and No sides won and lost the abortion referendum

How the Yes and No sides won and lost the abortion referendum

Harry McGee: Smiling Savita portraits proclaiming a new reality for Ireland
May 26, 2018

Harry McGee Political Correspondent

In the last few days of the referendum campaign on the Eight Amendment dozens of small posters appeared around Dublin.

The image was of Savita Halappanavar, instantly recognisable from her thick dark hair, wide smile, smiling eyes, and the Bindi dot on the forehead. The message contained one word: Yes. They were striking in their simplicity and directness.

The Savita case (read Kitty Holland’s report from 2012 here) was never too far away from people’s minds during the eight weeks that this extraordinary referendum campaign seeped into Irish public consciousness on doorsteps, in the streets, in the media, or on the airwaves… right up to polling day.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/how-the-yes-and-no-sides-won-and-lost-the-abortion-referendum-1.3509924

26.05.2018

Abortion Rights Campaign

Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment

National Women’s Council

Niamh Uí Bhriain

No campaign

Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act

Ireland’s yes voters celebrate a ‘leap forward’ in landmark vote on abortion

Ireland's yes voters celebrate a 'leap forward' in landmark vote on abortion

By Kara Fox, CNN
Video by Muhammad Darwish, CNN
Sat May 26, 2018

Dublin (CNN)As she held her 18-month old daughter closely to her chest, Amanda Mellet summed up in words what many in Ireland were feeling Saturday after the nation's referendum on abortion passed by a landslide.

"It just means that women -- and the men who love the women of Ireland -- have spoken out and they've said times have to change. And they are going to change now," a tearful Mellet said at the Royal Dublin Society, where the count took place throughout the day.

Continued; https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/26/europe/ireland-abortion-referendum-yes-vote-reaction-intl/index.html

Vote Yes to remove the harmful Eighth Amendment

Vote Yes to remove the harmful Eighth Amendment
Comment: The Constitution is too blunt an instrument to regulate crisis pregnancies

Thu, May 24, 2018
Ailbhe Smyth, Orla O'Connor

We are asking people to vote Yes so we can remove the harmful Eighth Amendment from our Constitution and end the dangers it has created for women’s healthcare in Ireland. The Eighth Amendment damages women’s health and on rare occasions has directly contributed to a woman’s death, as in the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar.

Currently, if a pregnant woman needs to end her pregnancy to protect her health, or for any other reason, she must do this without the care of her own doctor and travel to another country. More than 1,500 women are also ordering abortion pills online every year. This happens in secret because of the criminalisation of abortion and is therefore unregulated.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/vote-yes-to-remove-the-harmful-eighth-amendment-1.3505961

24.05.2018

Ireland – Google ad ban delivers major blow to No campaign

Google ad ban delivers major blow to No campaign
Surprise move deprives anti-abortion campaigners of key strategic element
May 10, 2018
Pat Leahy

Google’s decision to ban all ads related to the abortion referendum has been welcomed by repeal campaigners but sharply criticised by the No campaign, which called the move “scandalous” and “an attempt to rig the referendum”.

Google’s surprise move to ban all ads comes a day after Facebook said it would ban all online ads about the referendum from foreign sources. The Google decision goes much further, and deprives anti-abortion campaigners of a key element of their strategy for the final two weeks of the campaign.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/google-ad-ban-delivers-major-blow-to-no-campaign-1.3489623

Abortion referendum: Motivated Yes versus determined No

Abortion referendum: Motivated Yes versus determined No
‘When it comes down to the rub, it is much closer to 1995 in terms of urban/rural split’

May 4, 2018
Harry McGee

“Get there firstest with the mostest”, was the cardinal rule of US civil war general Nathan Bedford Forrest.

The Yes and No campaigns in the referendum on the Eight campaigns seem to have taken that approach to heart. Both are trying to hit the max on every imaginable metric – posters, volunteers, funding, social media reach, communications and messaging.

Inside two rambling Georgian buildings on either side of the Liffey are the nerve centres of Together for Yes campaign, and the opposing Save the 8th.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum-motivated-yes-versus-determined-no-1.3484536