Coverage a barrier to accessing services in rural and marginalised areas, study finds
May 24, 2021
Sarah Burns
Only one in 10 GPs in the State provide abortion services, according to a paper published by the National Women’s Council.
While GPs providing early medical abortions are “very committed”, coverage remains a significant barrier to accessing services in rural areas and in marginalised communities, it states.
The Department of Health has said telemedicine abortion will 'lapse' once the pandemic ends - this would be a mistake, writes Alison Spillane of the Irish Family Planning Association.
MON, 24 MAY, 2021
ALISON SPILLANE
Abortion has been available in Ireland since January 2019. Telemedicine abortion has been an option for almost half of that time. It expands patient choices and supports reproductive autonomy. Yet, women and pregnant people might be summarily deprived of this critical innovation.
Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the HSE revised the model of care for abortion services to allow doctors to provide care via phone or video consultations. “Telemedicine abortion”, both as a primary mode of care delivery and in combination with in-person care, has enabled community providers of early abortion care to maintain an essential health service, while minimising the risk of Covid-19 exposure for both patients and staff.
Continued: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-40297127.html
Senior officer was investigated by GSOC and the force
Ali Bracken
May 16 2021
A senior garda accused of trying to force a woman he had sex with to take illegal abortion pills has been cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal disciplinary inquiry.
The accusations against the officer had been subject of a garda ombudsman investigation a number of years ago.
Advocacy group says confusion over travel rights causing upset at distressing time
May 2, 2021
Kitty Holland, Social Affairs Correspondent
Women travelling abroad for abortion services
are facing increased costs and delays, and are being refused permission to
board flights amid confusion over their travel rights during the pandemic, an
advocacy group has said.
The Abortion Support Network (ASN), a London-based charity supporting women
travelling for abortion services, is calling for “clarity” from the Department
of Health as to whether abortion is an “urgent” medical service under the
Covid-19 travel regulations.
This fight against women's oppression is not just a struggle for women, but for all of humanity.
Tuesday, April 06, 2021
by Alison Bodine, Common Dreams
March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day, is an important day to recognize the
challenges confronted and the great victories made by women around the world,
especially in the past year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over the last 12 months, in addition to the health challenges posed by Covid-19
itself, women have faced increasing rates of domestic violence, higher rates of
job loss, as well as a larger burden of the care of children and families
because of the pandemic. In countries like the U.S. and Canada, government
mismanagement of Covid-19 has amplified the health and economic crisis. Black,
Indigenous, and immigrant women and their communities have been
disproportionately impacted by the crisis.
Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/06/womens-rights-are-human-rights
Women with unwanted pregnancies are finding Covid-19 a major obstacle to keeping their lives on track, writes Ali Bracken
Ali Bracken
February 07 2021
An unwanted pregnancy was not something Aoife had anticipated having to deal with during lockdown. But somehow, at the end of November, she found herself sitting alone in her Dublin apartment, looking incredulously at the pregnancy test results. She initially didn't believe it. So she took another test, and then a third. Finally she was forced to accept the reality.
"I was pregnant in the middle of a pandemic. And I did not want to be," she recalls. "For me, this was the worst news. It also came at the most emotionally challenging time of my life.
The incoming Biden administration is set to adopt policies that promote equality and human rights around the world, says Katherine Zappone
Katherine Zappone
TUE, 15 DEC, 2020
One of many reasons to welcome Donald Trump’s departure from the White House is that a deeply damaging and harmful piece of foreign policy is expected to exit with him.
The so-called ‘Global Gag Rule’, a policy which prohibits US aid to foreign nongovernmental organisations who refer to or advocate abortion services, has cost the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls in the poorer regions of the world during the past four years.
Continued: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-40190628.html
Writer Caelainn Hogan has accessed files that give an insight into life at a Donegal mother-and-baby home known as The Castle.
Aug 23, 2020
Caelainn Hogan
IN A SMALL town in Donegal close to the border with Derry there is an abandoned building that was once a mother-and-baby home called the Castle.
The boarded-up house is visible from the road, set back from high gates in an overgrown field.
This institution where ‘unmarried mothers’ were sent is not part of some distant past. It only closed in 2006.
Continued: https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/caelinn-hogan-the-castle-5178051-Aug2020/
A close look at what is going on in the US could show what is in store for Ireland
Fri, Jul 24, 2020
Mary Ziegler
The fight over Ireland’s Eighth Amendment touched a nerve in the United States. After all, more than four decades ago, Americans lived through a sweeping change to the nation’s abortion laws after the US Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision invalidated most laws on the books and created a new right to choose abortion.
In May 2018, Ireland experienced a change that was just as explosive. Voters decisively chose to reject the Eighth and approve a law that guaranteed unrestricted access to abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy.
When Amy learned the child she was carrying wouldn't survive, she faced an agonising choice, that ended in a battle to change Irish abortion laws. Now, she describes the case that saw her branded a murderer at 17
By Jenny Johnston for the Daily Mail
15 July 2020
The worst thing for Amy Dunne is that she never saw her daughter’s face. ‘I couldn’t at the time. I had the choice and I just couldn’t do it. I stood by the cot and touched her fingers and her toes, but she was never in my arms, and the blanket was covering her face.
‘I remember watching the priest hold her to give her a blessing, and being bitter and jealous that he was holding my baby. I think maybe even at the time I knew that I would be angry for the rest of my life because I never got to see my child.’
Continued: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8526743/My-baby-heartbreak-changed-history.html
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