Vote Yes to remove the harmful Eighth Amendment
Comment: The Constitution is too blunt an instrument to regulate crisis pregnancies
Thu, May 24, 2018
Ailbhe Smyth, Orla O'Connor
We are asking people to vote Yes so we can remove the harmful Eighth Amendment from our Constitution and end the dangers it has created for women’s healthcare in Ireland. The Eighth Amendment damages women’s health and on rare occasions has directly contributed to a woman’s death, as in the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar.
Currently, if a pregnant woman needs to end her pregnancy to protect her health, or for any other reason, she must do this without the care of her own doctor and travel to another country. More than 1,500 women are also ordering abortion pills online every year. This happens in secret because of the criminalisation of abortion and is therefore unregulated.