From Ireland to Northern Ireland: campaigns for abortion law

From Ireland to Northern Ireland: campaigns for abortion law

Angel Li
Published: 16 June 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31357-6 |

After Ireland successfully overturned its 8th Amendment using grassroots activism, attention turns to Northern Ireland's abortion laws. Angel Li reports from Dublin.

Sitting in a quiet carriage of a train to Gatwick Airport, my thoughts turned to the women taking this same route back to Ireland after travelling to the UK for abortions. I wondered if anyone was on this train for that very purpose. More than 170 000 women have travelled abroad from Ireland seeking abortions since 1980.

Having arrived at Gatwick Airport, I met two volunteers working with the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign who were taking the same flight to Dublin as me.

Continued: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31357-6/fulltext

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

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

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

Ireland – Abortion referendum: Phoney war prevails until legislation is clear

Abortion referendum: Phoney war prevails until legislation is clear
The 12-week stance and the notion of trust – coming from both sides – is crucial to debate

Mar 3, 2018
Fiach Kelly

Last November, a group of 15 to 20 people who have pressed for changes to Ireland’s abortion laws for decades sat in the headquarters of the National Women’s Council of Ireland in Smithfield to listen to a research briefing.

One of the key messages for the forthcoming campaign, according to sources, was that “some change is better than no change”, and that they must be willingness to settle for less than some of them have long wanted.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/abortion-referendum-phoney-war-prevails-until-legislation-is-clear-1.3413360