Ireland: Fighting To Win The Right To Choose

On 28 October 2012, the barbarity of the Irish state’s attempt to ban abortion was exposed.

- Rita Harrold

But five years on from the death of Savita Halappanavar after she requested and was denied a termination while having a miscarriage, the Irish political establishment is still dragging its heels.

Irish abortion has traditionally been exported to UK abortion clinics where approximately ten Irish addresses are given every day, but sick women like Savita are unable to make such a journey.  

The Irish pro-choice movement has been organising and protesting for the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, the constitutional ban on abortion, before and since then and has significantly grown in the last year. Socialist feminist group Rosa, in which Socialist Party members participate, has been to the fore in calling not for incremental change but full abortion rights.

The Strike 4 Repeal saw thousands of mainly young women pour onto the streets on International Women’s Day this year calling for a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment and last month we saw over 30,000 at the March for Choice. In opinion polls, 68% say they trust women when they say they need an abortion.

The Citizens’ Assembly - an advisory body of 100 people - was set up by the government in an attempt to distance itself from the issue of abortion while bowing somewhat to the pressure to do something.

It was deliberately drawn out to delay progress and excluded anyone who had ever made a public statement for or against abortion, which resulted in one member being replaced after wearing a pro-choice badge to the first meeting.