In a column on LaoisToday last week, Fr Paddy Byrne defended the Eight Amendment and hit out at Minister for Children Katherine Zappone.
In a response that we publish below, Laois women Gearoidin McEvoy and Dr Naomi Elster write that repealing the Eighth Amendment will remove not only the stigma and shame that dominates our society, but it will also remove the dangerous conditions that women are forced into when cornered by a crisis pregnancy.
Ireland has a secret. The secret is known to all, but until recently, never spoken of. The secret, of course, is that abortion is a fact of Irish life.
It’s part of every social group and community. In our own locality, 42 women gave Laois addresses at UK abortion clinics in 2016.
The reasons these women sought abortions are no doubt as varied as the women themselves; it could be health, it it could be poverty, it could be circumstances, it could be rape.
These women were not stopped from terminating their pregnancies by the Eighth Amendment. Because of our restrictive laws, Laois women had to fork out up to almost €2000 for the procedure in the UK, on top of arranging and paying for travel, accommodation, and childcare.
They are likely to have boarded a plane or a ferry and faced into a long day’s travel to return to Laois immediately after their medical procedure, without adequate time to recover.
We should have been able to show compassion to these women, to give them whatever care and support they needed at home. The fact that we ignore them is difficult to stomach.
The Eighth Amendment does not stop abortion. It stops safe abortion. Be it a trip to the UK, an abortion pill ordered online, or more sinister and graphic methods, desperate women will find a way.
From 1980 to 2016, over 170,000 women attending UK abortion clinics gave Irish addresses. From 2010 to 2015, 5,650 Irish women are known to have ordered abortion pills.
According to official statistics from BPAS (British Pregnancy Advice Service), over 50% of people who have abortions are parents already. While the abortion pill is remarkably safe, forcing women to take pills in secret without a medical professional nearby adds a completely unnecessary layer of distress to what should be a routine procedure.
The Eighth Amendment and the debate about whether or not the women of Ireland are entitled to autonomy over their own bodies is difficult to stomach.
In a 2007 study by the WHO it was found that making abortion illegal neither reduces nor prevents abortions. Legal abortion carried out by medical professionals is safer than childbirth.
What is often most difficult to stomach in this debate is that those who support the Eighth Amendment often portray themselves as victims.
No matter how many column inches they are given, no matter how many panel seats or counter opinions they are allowed, this notion persists. We have not only heard that side of the debate, we have been living the reality of the Eighth Amendment.
Our lives, our laws and our labia are completely and totally governed by the Eighth Amendment. It is because of this point of view that 42 Laois women were forced to travel last year. Where in that supporters of the Eighth feel victimised and silenced? The victims in this debate are the women who find themselves in crisis pregnancies, with no way out.
Pregnant by choice or not, wanted or not, compatible with life outside the womb or not, consensual sex or not, there is no scenario where a pregnant women has autonomy over her own body.
The Eighth Amendment has a chilling effect on pregnancies that are wanted; due to the legal position granted to a foetus by the Eight, pregnant women are absented from the HSE consent policy, and are the only capable adults who can, in modern-day Ireland, have procedures including surgeries performed on them without their consent. These are the victims. The Eighth Amendment is difficult to stomach.
Dignity
‘Human rights’ and ‘dignity’ are often paraded around by the anti-choice debate. I find it difficult to understand where these claims come from.
They certainly don’t come from the UN – the body tasked with protecting, defining and defending human rights globally. The UN has repeatedly found our laws to not only be contrary to human rights and dignity, but to be a violation of the prohibition on torture.
The Eighth Amendment is torturing women. Where is the dignity in that? Where is our dignity as a nation when we are more than happy to export our ‘problematic women’ and carry on as though nothing is happening?
We are an outlier. These laws are not normal. They categorically do not protect human rights. Not only do we enshrine this discriminatory torture in our constitution, but advocates would promote the Eighth Amendment as great protector of human rights. This is difficult to stomach.
Disgrace
It is difficult to stomach that there are those who would so blatantly label a movement towards human rights for women as being a disgrace without a hint of irony. When I think of disgraces in Irish life, my mind goes to Tuam.
To the countless women, imprisoned for perceived promiscuity, their children ripped from them to be shipped away to the highest bidder or worse. I think of symphysiotomies, of Savita, of Ann Lovett, of the nameless, faceless masses, exiled to Liverpool, London and Leiden for basic medical care.
A disgrace is those people who would so sanctimoniously bury their heads in the sand and pretend that abortion does not exist in Ireland, that the Eighth Amendment is the only thing protecting us from a hellish landscape of women demanding abortion. No one has ever “demanded” an abortion – or any medical care, for that matter.
No one makes a decision to have an abortion on a casual whim, as a replacement for contraception or ‘just because’.
To suggest as such is not only an wholly uneducated interpretation of the realities faced by women in crisis pregnancies but it is also grossly insulting to what they have to deal with, and their ability to make responsible decisions.
Away in a Clinic
Abortion exists in Ireland. Like it or not, it exists. Shoving Ireland’s abortions under the carpet isn’t an option anymore.
There is hardly enough space left beneath that carpet it with all the scandals we have visited upon Irish women in the past. It’s high time we pulled the carpet away and exposed the reality.
Repealing the Eighth Amendment will remove not only the stigma and shame that dominates our society, but it will also remove the dangerous conditions that women are forced into when cornered by a crisis pregnancy.
Up to 1996 we shoved our ‘problematic women’ into Magdalene Laundries. Today we shove them on cheap Ryanair flights.
They are away in a clinic, surrounded by other terrified Irish women, exiled and criminalised for accessing their basic human rights. Yes, the Eighth Amendment is difficult to stomach.
If you are interested in finding out more or joining the Laois Pro Choice Regional Advocacy Group, please email prochoicelaois@gmail.com for more information.
SEE ALSO – Fr Paddy: Defending the Eighth Amendment
