April 7, 2025
At least 5,860 European women crossed borders for abortions in 2023. This includes Ireland, even after the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in 2018.
The Journal Investigates latest report showed that women still come across bureaucratic hurdles that force them to travel. Its editor, Maria Delaney, said Irish women continue to travel to Britain for abortions.
Legal, bureaucratic and social obstacles are still faced by women, even if they live in countries where abortion is legalised.
7 Apr 2025
THOUSANDS OF WOMEN have to travel to neighbouring countries in Europe to access abortion care due to barriers faced at home.
A cross-border investigation, Exporting Abortion, exposes this stark statistic for the first time, following an extensive examination of data and personal testimonies across Europe.
Our analysis found that more than 5,000 women travel from their home countries every year due to the difficulties they face in accessing abortion care. In 2023, that number was at least 5,860.
Continued: https://www.thejournal.ie/investigates-exporting-abortion-europe-6666436-Apr2025/
September 16, 2024
Seána Glennon, Postdoctoral Fellow, Constitutional Law, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Donald Trump has flip-flopped on the issue of abortion for decades, from declaring himself “very pro-choice” in the 1990s and “pro-life” in 2011 to hinting this year that he’d support a national abortion ban.
Abortion is a topic of huge importance in American politics this year: it could decide the United States presidential election, and the way states regulate abortion access will have life-or-death consequences for women.
…American legislators should look to Ireland to understand the real-life consequences of a ban on abortion, the chilling effect on health-care professionals of an exception only in cases of a threat to the life of the pregnant woman, and the significant problems with attempting to legislate abortion access only for certain reasons, like rape and incest.
Letter of the Day
Mon Jul 15 2024
by Dr Peter Boylan, Former chair, Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists,
Sir, – Breda O’Brien’s claim that there has been an “astonishing rise” in abortion services accessed by women in the Republic of Ireland since the repeal of the Eighth Amendment is misplaced (“In Ireland, you can tell people abortion figures won’t rise and still be unaccountable when they double”, Opinion & Analysis, July 13th).
The statistic of 3,019 women from the Republic accessing abortion in England and Wales in 2017 refers only to the number of women who gave addresses in the Republic. Many others provided the UK addresses of family, friends or supporters. This practice was well-identified over many years when abortion was illegal here. Similarly, the number of women who used abortion pills prior to repeal cannot be accurately determined.
Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/07/15/abortion-numbers-are-in-line-with-predictions/
MON, 15 JAN, 2024
CIARA PHELAN, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said it will be “cruel” and “political cowardice” if the Government decides against removing a three-day waiting period to access abortion services.
Ms Cairns has called on Government to deal with the recommendations from the final review into the State’s abortion law, authored by barrister Marie O’Shea, which recommends significant changes.
Continued: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41309473.html
Testimony about the horrors of abortion bans is more powerful than abstract conversations about life and choice.
By Mary Ziegler
August 3, 2023
In a courtroom in Austin, Texas, last month, five women put the state’s harsh abortion laws on trial.
Officially, their lawsuit aims to clarify the exceptions in the state’s complex scheme of abortion bans and restrictions. Since 2011, Texas has had an abortion law that defines a “medical emergency” to include any “life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that, as certified by a physician, places the woman in danger of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” Somewhat different definitions apply in other Texas laws, including SB8, the law allowing anyone to sue a doctor or someone aiding them for at least $10,000 per abortion. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the women who brought the lawsuit, argues that because Texas’s exceptions are unclear or even contradictory, physicians are unsure when they can provide care and thus are likely to turn away even patients who qualify for a legal abortion because they have a life-threatening condition.
The continent’s abortion laws are a patchwork of progress and setbacks. And for many, accessing the right care at the right time is still a lottery.
BY GRACE BROWNE
JUN 22, 2023
ON MAY 26, 2018, Irish women spilled onto the streets to celebrate a historic win for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. The staunchly Catholic country had overwhelmingly voted to scrap the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, under which abortion was essentially illegal—one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world.
Five years on, the mood has sobered. Under the new laws, those seeking an abortion have to undergo a mandatory waiting period, adhere to strict time limits, and contend with a lack of providers. From 2019 to 2021, 775 people made use of their right to travel freely between the United Kingdom and Ireland to head to Britain to access abortion services. In 2020, despite the pandemic, nearly 200 people still traveled across the Irish Sea to get abortion care in the UK. The Abortion Support Network (ASN), a charity that helps people in Europe access abortion through telemedicine or by supporting travel, says every three days they hear from someone in Ireland looking for help.
Continued: https://www.wired.com/story/europe-abortion-laws/
On a political level, there was very little to cling to as an abortion activist in the 80s and 90s, she says, and religion of course played a large part in that.
May 27, 2023
LABOUR LEADER IVANA Bacik spoke to The Journal about how the route to abortion rights went from being a “desperately lonely” movement on the periphery of society to becoming a mainstream political issue.
The subject of access to abortion stills holds the public’s attention today with a recent review finding that issues such as geographic location, the three-day waiting period and other obstacles still impede women’s access to abortion services.
Continued: https://www.thejournal.ie/ivana-bacik-interview-abortion-rights-ireland-6077186-May2023/
By Niamh Kennedy and Emily Blumenthal, CNN
Thu May 25, 2023
In 2018, the Irish public voted overwhelmingly to repeal the country’s Eighth Amendment, overturning one of the strictest abortion bans in the European Union. There were scenes of jubilation as the referendum result was announced, with many in Ireland seeing it as a historic step that would give women control over their own bodies.
But five years on, although abortion is free and legally available in Ireland up to 12 weeks of pregnancy – after that allowed only in exceptional circumstances, if there is a risk to the mother’s life or the fetus is not expected to survive – the abortion system is still far from where campaigners and charities would like it to be.
Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/25/europe/ireland-abortion-referendum-5-years-intl-cmd/index.html
Road to Repeal: 50 Years of Struggle in Ireland for Contraception and Abortion (new book)
by Tomás Mac Sheoin
Feb 01, 2023
In August 2022, Fintan O’Toole, a journalist with the Irish Times, published an article in the New York Review of Books giving his interpretation of the lessons to be learned from the Irish experience with abortion. O’Toole first outlined the history: in 1981, right-wing groups, buttressed by American support—including financial support—formed the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign, which persuaded the Irish government to propose a referendum to include a ban on abortion in the Irish Constitution. The ban was passed in 1983, becoming the constitution’s eighth amendment.
O’Toole outlines three problems with legal bans on abortion. First, they simply do not stop abortions: in 1985, 3,888 women traveled from Ireland to England to terminate their pregnancies; in 2001, that number was 6,673.
Continued: https://monthlyreview.org/2023/02/01/abortion-the-real-irish-lessons/
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