An Irish woman in Argentina: Now, both my countries have voted for abortion

An Irish woman in Argentina: Now, both my countries have voted for abortion
The decriminalisation of abortion in Argentina has been brought within striking distance

June 18, 2018
Sophie Parker in Buenos Aires

As Ireland took to the polls on May 25th, Argentina was celebrating May Revolution Day, commemorating the first successful revolution in South America’s Independence process. As I followed events across the ocean from my adopted home in Buenos Aires, I couldn’t help but think of Ireland’s Eighth Amendment referendum in terms of revolution: not exactly a “quiet” one, to use the Taoiseach’s word, but as part of a worldwide uprising that is increasingly difficult to drown out.

By the time the Eighth Amendment was repealed in Ireland, the debate in Argentina’s Congress on the decriminalisation of abortion was well under way. On June 14th, just before 10am, the streets around the Congress building erupted with roars of jubilation and relief as the nail-bitingly close result was revealed: the bill, first presented over a decade ago by the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion alliance, had passed.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/an-irish-woman-in-argentina-now-both-my-countries-have-voted-for-abortion-1.3534574

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

‘I had no real interest in politics, until this’ – Ireland’s accidental abortion activists

‘I had no real interest in politics, until this’ – Ireland’s accidental abortion activists
On 25 May, voters in Ireland will decide whether to legalise abortion. Doctors, grandparents and those who have been forced to travel the UK to seek terminations have been raising their voices in a bid to shift the narrative

Joyce Fegan
Tue 22 May 2018

In September 1983, article 40.3.3 – the eighth amendment – was voted into the Irish constitution. It equated the life of the “unborn” with that of the mother. It gave rise to a ban on abortion in all circumstances from the moment of conception.

It also led to a grave national silence, whereby abortion was outsourced to neighbouring jurisdictions, with Britain becoming a place of medical refuge for at least 168,703 Irish women.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/22/ireland-abortion-vote-accidental-activists-eighth-amendment