‘Abortion is never taken lightly…you’re in mourning’ – Irish woman behind Twitter account documenting friend’s journey to UK for termination

Published 11/12/2016, The Independent

The woman behind the Twitter account which documented her Irish friend’s journey to the UK to have an abortion has told how they weren’t the only Irish people who travelled that day.

Back in August, two friends set up the account @TwoWomenTravel and tweeted the experience.

From the plane journey, to sitting in the waiting room of the clinic, she described how difficult both the decision and procedure were in her first ever radio interview.

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Source: The Independent

11.12.2016

Abortion In Ireland: Repeal The 8th Amendment

By Róisín Ingle

15 Sep 2016, Grazia Daily

Abortion is illegal in Ireland - but now, thanks to an increasing army of protestors fighting to repeal the 8th amendment (the law that makes it criminal) the Irish government is considering a referendum.

Róisín Ingle, senior editor of The Irish Times, who herself travelled to England to have an abortion, reports on this critical moment.

Every Saturday, for fifteen years, readers of The Irish Times were subjected to my particular brand of professional oversharing in a weekly lifestyle column. From cringe-making relationship blunders to mortifying tights-related malfunctions, I left no personal milestone unshared. And yet there was one revelation I stopped myself from divulging time and time again: when I was in my late twenties, I had an abortion.

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Source: Grazia Daily

Ireland’s Long Journey on Abortion

Bill Bragg

By SADHBH WALSHE
September 2, 2016, New York Times

DUBLIN — “Not the first or the last bleeding women about to face a long trek home.” This was one of the tweets sent this month to the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, from a woman who was traveling abroad for an abortion.

The woman and a friend set up a Twitter account, @TwoWomenTravel, to live-tweet her experience as she flew from Ireland to England for an abortion that she could not obtain safely or legally in her own country. By documenting the dreary trip with photographs of bleak-looking places along the way, the women sought to highlight the hypocrisy of lawmakers. These politicians turn a blind eye to the thousands of Irish women who travel abroad for terminations while imposing a 14-year prison sentence on any woman who procures the same service at home.

Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion, known as the Eighth Amendment, grants a fetus the same right to life as the woman carrying it. Since the amendment was championed by Roman Catholic groups in the 1980s, successive Irish governments — despite probably fearing more for their re-election chances than for their mortal souls — have allowed the church to dictate the terms of the abortion debate.

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Source: The New York Times

Abortion in Ireland: ‘Silence is breaking 12 hearts a day’

A 2012 poster advertising a memorial for Savita Hallapanavar. Photograph: Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters

As #TwoWomenTravel, two friends recently live-tweeted their journey to Britain for one of them to have an abortion. Another 11 women will have made the same journey every day. But is the country ready to repeal its eighth amendment?

Emer O'Toole

Monday 29 August 2016 16.21 BST

Ireland’s abortion regime has been responsible for a litany of tragedies in recent years. The death of Savita Halappanavar, denied a life-saving abortion during her miscarriage; the state-sponsored abuse of Miss Y, a suicidal teenage asylum seeker and rape victim, forced to carry her pregnancy to viability and deliver by C-section; a brain-dead woman kept alive, effectively as an incubator, against her family’s wishes. And there are plenty more mundane, yet nonetheless heartbreaking, stories of approximately 12 women a day who travel to the UK to access abortion services.

In the last year, something fundamental has shifted. The Irish pro-choice movement is getting loud. Actors and writers including Tara Flynn, Helen Linehan and Susan Cahill have shared their abortion stories, bravely breaking taboos. An “abortion bus” flouted the law to tour Ireland distributing medication. Comedian Gráinne Maguire had us all tweeting details of our periods to the taoiseach, Enda Kenny. Activist Anna Cosgrave designed distinctive Repeal jumpers, so that on any given day in Dublin you will see supporters with their commitment to repealing the 1983 eighth amendment to the constitution emblazoned across their chests. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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Source: The Guardian

29.08.2016

Ireland: In a country where no one wants to talk about abortion, these women live-tweeted it

Forced 2 leave Ireland, @EndaKennyTD waiting room,waiting for our loved ones #twowomentravel 8:59 AM - 20 Aug 2016

August 25, 2016 · 12:00 PM EDT
By Shondiin Silversmith

It is illegal for women to get an abortion in Ireland unless the pregnancy directly threatens her life.

With no other options, two women live-tweeted as they traveled to the United Kingdom for the procedure.

@TwoWomenTravel live-tweeted from Friday to Sunday. The description of the Twitter account states “Two Women, one procedure, 48 hours away from home.”

The women kept their identities private, and the account of the trip could not be independently confirmed.

Many of the tweets sent out from that account included Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny's Twitter handle @EndaKennyTD as well as the hashtag #twowomentravel.

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Source: PRI.org

25.08.2016

Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment

2 Irish women live-tweet their journey for an abortion in Britain

@TwoWomenTravel #twowomentravel @EndaKennyTD 10:09 AM - 21 Aug 2016

New York Times, WITW Staff
08.22.16

Banned from receiving an abortion in Ireland, a woman — together with her friend — has tweeted about their journey to Britain on Saturday under the handle Two Women Travel. “Two women, one procedure, 48 hours away from home,” is how they described their mission, while remaining anonymous. The woman seeking the procedure is among the more than 3,000 women who travel to the U.K. from Ireland annually for abortions.

The women’s posts all tagged Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, who supports the country’s strict abortion laws, with the exception of cases where the woman’s life is at risk. The overwhelmingly majority Catholic nation has the strictest ban in all of the European Union.

After the procedure to terminate the pregnancy, the women thanked their supporters: “Our love to you all. @EndaKennyTD failed us. You did not.”

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Source: New York Times

22.08.2016

Ireland: #TwoWomenTravel – Live-tweeting an abortion

@twowomentravel Boarding, it's chilly. #endakendyTD

By BBC Trending, What's popular and why

22 August 2016

The description on their Twitter bio was simple: "Two Women, one procedure, 48 hours away from home." But more than 40,000 tweets about their journey revealed a conversation that was far more complex.

The Twitter account @TwoWomenTravel was set up on Saturday by a pregnant Irish woman and her companion. It documented their journey from Ireland to the UK for an abortion.

Abortion is illegal in Ireland, except if the mother's life is at risk. According to the United Kingdom's Department of Health more than 165,000 women travelled to the UK from Ireland for a termination of pregnancy between 1980 and 2015.

In the case of "Two Women Travel" their journey began in the early hours of this past Saturday morning.
Image copyright Twitter/Two Women Travel

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Source: BBC

22.08.2016

Irish woman live-tweets journey for abortion in England

We stand in solidarity with all women exiled by @EndaKennyTD, his predecessors, his apologists. #twowomentravel

Ireland's abortion ban forces thousands of women to travel to England every year

by Charlotte England
@charlottengland
Aug 20, 2016

An Irish women who is live-tweeting her journey to England to have an abortion has attacked premier Enda Kenny for forcing women to go into "exile".

The woman and a friend who is travelling with her said they “stand in solidarity” with other women from Ireland who have had to make the trip.

The women launched the Twitter feed at 5am on Saturday morning, shortly before making a "chilly" dawn journey to board a 6.30am flight across the Irish sea.

They described it as an account of “two women, one procedure, 48 hours away from home". [hashtag: #TwoWomenTravel]

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Source: The Independent

20.08.2016