Ireland – ‘This institution for ‘unmarried mothers’ is not part of some distant past – it closed in 2006’

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/

Abortion: the US shows what could be in store for Ireland

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.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/abortion-the-us-shows-what-could-be-in-store-for-ireland-1.4310037

24.07.2020

Featured

Opinion

anti-choice protests

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

Ireland (Irish Republic)

Malta looks to Ireland in campaign for legal abortion

Malta looks to Ireland in campaign for legal abortion

Monday, 25 May 2020
By Ailbhe Conneely, Social Affairs & Religion Correspondent

The second anniversary of the referendum on the 8th amendment has arrived, and has barely made a dent in the news coverage due to Covid-19.

Arguably, the appetite for the story is no longer there, but it is a topic that will never be far from the headlines.

Legislation underpinning the current service will be reviewed next year, for example.

Continued: https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2020/0525/1141515-abortion/

Ireland – Abortion: Minister warns of exclusion zones after hospital protests

Abortion: Minister warns of exclusion zones after hospital protests
Maternity hospital street protests ‘sickening’ and ‘anti-democratic’, says Simon Harris

Jan 2, 2019
Paul Cullen Health Editor

Local authorities could be given powers to impose exclusion zones outside maternity hospitals preventing anti-abortion protests, Minister for Health Simon Harris has suggested.

Another option Mr Harris said he was examining was to engage with the Minister for Justice in relation to legislation governing intimidation and harassment.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/abortion-minister-warns-of-exclusion-zones-after-hospital-protests-1.4129036

Ireland – Coombe hospital obstetrician appointed HSE clinical lead for abortion

Coombe hospital obstetrician appointed HSE clinical lead for abortion
Services are available in 10 out of 19 maternity units, and through 347 GPs in the community

Dec 30, 2019
Paul Cullen Health Editor

Dr Aoife Mullally, an obstetrician at the Coombe hospital in Dublin, has been appointed HSE clinical lead for abortion, a year after the service was introduced.

Dr Mullally’s main task in the part-time post will be to ensure the roll out of termination of pregnancy in more maternity units, and in GP surgeries and other community settings.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/coombe-hospital-obstetrician-appointed-hse-clinical-lead-for-abortion-1.4127467

30.12.2019

Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act

Irish GPs providing abortion

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Europe

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Clinical

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Human Rights

Ireland – Simon Harris to give free contraceptives to women aged 17-24

Simon Harris to give free contraceptives to women aged 17-24

Stephen O’Brien, Political Editor
December 29 2019, The Sunday Times

Simon Harris, the health minister, is preparing to provide free contraception to Irish women, starting with making the pill, condoms and long-acting reversible contraceptives (Larcs) available for those aged 17-24, in a bid to reduce unwanted pregnancies.

The minister is expected to bring plans to cabinet next month to give free contraception to younger women initially, with the option of expanding the scheme to older age groups after it becomes established. The Oireachtas committee on the eighth amendment recommended that universal access to free contraception be introduced alongside the legalisation of abortion in Ireland.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/simon-harris-to-give-free-contraceptives-to-women-aged-17-24-b96wkvwbc

29.12.2019

Ireland (Irish Republic)

Contraception

Health

Law

Ireland – Amy Dunne on her lonely, harrowing abortion fight: ‘I was told I would be done for murder’

Amy Dunne on her lonely, harrowing abortion fight: 'I was told I would be done for murder'
At 17, Dunne was pregnant with a baby who had a fatal abnormality. She was given a pseudonym and became the focus of a landmark Irish legal case – but now she is reclaiming her story

Rory Carroll
Thu 5 Dec 2019

The week Amy Dunne turned 17, she was several months pregnant and made two discoveries – one devastating and the other incomprehensible. A hospital scan showed something badly wrong in her womb. The foetus had anencephaly, a fatal abnormality. Doctors said the baby, a girl, would die soon after birth.

Although she was living in foster care and still a child herself, Dunne had looked forward to becoming a mother and building a new life with her boyfriend. Distraught, she shared the news with her social workers and said she needed to travel to Britain from Ireland for an abortion. That’s when Dunne discovered something badly wrong in her country.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/05/amy-dunne-miss-d-abortion-told-would-be-done-for

N. Ireland – How We Won the Right to Choose

How We Won the Right to Choose

By Maev McDaid and Brian Christopher
10.31.2019

Coming hot on the heels of Dublin’s repeal of anti-abortion laws, decriminalization in the North is a decisive victory for Irish feminists. The church and the state are losing their control over our bodies — but we still need to make abortion legal, safe, and free.

October 22 marked a decisive victory in the North of Ireland, as abortion was finally decriminalized. This news will surely have passed many people by — after all, in national as in international media, the North is almost only ever “represented” by the bigots in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). But last week, this stridently anti-choice party was finally overruled by the Westminster parliament. Its move to decriminalize abortion in the North came fifty years after a similar step was taken on the British mainland. Yet this success especially owes to decades of heroic struggles waged by Irish feminists.

continued: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/northern-ireland-abortion-eighth-amendment

Why Ireland’s battle over abortion is far from over

Why Ireland’s battle over abortion is far from over
From sham websites to rogue crisis pregnancy centres, Irish anti-abortionists are using shocking tactics to block women’s rights to safe abortions

Caelainn Hogan
Thu 3 Oct 2019

It has been more than a year since the landslide vote for abortion rights in Ireland, yet last weekend hundreds of people were once more marching through the streets of Dublin, chanting: “Get your rosaries off our ovaries!” “It’s nonsense, what are they marching for?” a guard standing on the road outside the National maternity hospital asked a colleague on a motorbike – referring to the 2018 referendum in which the Irish public voted overwhelmingly to repeal the law prohibiting abortion. The answer is that, while the law may have changed, many people are still struggling to access abortions in Ireland due to a lack of provision, the time restrictions on terminations, the illegal activities of anti-abortion campaigners – and an enduring legacy of shame.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/oct/03/why-irelands-battle-over-abortion-is-far-from-over-anti-abortionists

Ireland – Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators attend Rally for Life

Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators attend Rally for Life
Campaigners march through Dublin with banners stating ‘abortion steals hope’

Sat, Jul 6, 2019
Sarah Burns

Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators turned out in Dublin on Saturday afternoon for the annual Rally for Life.

Campaigners marched from Parnell Square to the Custom House with banners stating “abortion steals hope” and “the future is pro life” and chanting “hey hey ho ho Simon Harris has to go”.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/thousands-of-anti-abortion-demonstrators-attend-rally-for-life-1.3949062