Critical decisions will be made on abortion rights in Ireland between September and December of this year. An Oireachtas Committee of 21 TDs and Senators will adjudicate on the Citizens’ Assembly proposals. It can recommend to the Dáil what should happen regarding a referendum on the eighth amendment and what legislation should follow.
The people most impacted by the decisions of this Committee and of the Dáil are, of course, young people who face crisis pregnancies now or will in the future. Every single day, 10 pregnant people leave the country for an abortion. We know from Women on Web that about three others have abortions in their own bedrooms using medical abortion pills, illegal in Ireland, but prescribed in every other EU state as safe, and essential, World Health Organisation-approved medicine.
The people most impacted by the decisions of this Committee and of the Dáil are, of course, young people who face crisis pregnancies now or will in the future.
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Banning abortion does not lessen this. The hypocrisy has to end. We also have to recognise that those without access to travel are the biggest victims. And those with the least money, including students, are simply forced abroad for later and more costly abortions that could be provided safely here.
It is vital that those who want progressive change see the importance of this committee and demand it implements the spirit of what was proposed by the Citizens Assembly – and nothing less.
The Citizens’ Assembly was set up by the Dáil last year, against the backdrop of a rising repeal campaign. But while the establishment expected a conservative result, the Citizens’ Assembly refused to oblige. Listening to reasoned information over a period of time, the ordinary people in the Citizens’ Assembly concluded that the Dáil absolutely must act, that fundamentally the eighth amendment had to go and abortion be introduced on a wide range of grounds. These include foetal abnormality, health, socio-economic reasons up to 22 weeks and “without restriction as to reason” up to 12 weeks.
We now have a fundamental clash: the first public forum ever on abortion rights has made radical recommendations. But the Dáil is very conservative. Only one Dáil group (Solidarity-People Before Profit) plus a handful of TDs, have policy supporting such proposals. It is obvious that mass public pressure is needed to force parties to go beyond their current positions.
We now have a fundamental clash: the first public forum ever on abortion rights has made radical recommendations. But the Dáil is very conservative.
As a pro-choice activist on the committee, I will be advocating full repeal of the eighth, with no replacement or amendment, and nothing about women’s bodies or the “unborn” in the Constitution. I will argue for a rights-based approach to legislation for abortion.
The committee’s terms of reference mean it can vote on which of the Citizens’ Assembly grounds should be included or excluded from legislation. But it should not be the preserve of the committee, or a Dáil that’s out of step with public opinion, to vote down much-needed change.
I have put forward the idea of a plebiscite, where the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly would be put to the people for a vote, rather than being excluded by an unrepresentative Dáil Committee.
We saw how the Irish establishment felt it necessary to put marriage equality to a popular vote – they hadn’t the guts themselves to introduce it as legislation. With their long ties to the church, the Irish establishment cannot be trusted to bring in social progress taken for granted in other EU states, to separate church and state, implement non-judgemental sex education, have free or even affordable contraception and, of course, abortion rights. They will have to be compelled to by a very strong, active movement.
The 21 members of the eighth amendment committee must be actively engaged with by young people, women and people generally by arranging visits, meetings, days of action in constituencies, social media and petitions.
The 21 members of the eighth amendment committee must be actively engaged with by young people, women and people generally by arranging visits, meetings, days of action in constituencies, social media and petitions.
Huge pressure can come also by a mass mobilisation on September 30th at the March for Choice, currently the only national mobilisation taking place during the tenure of the committee. Students should march in their tens of thousands for this.
Five years on from the death of Savita Halappanavar, it is incredible that we still don’t have laws allowing abortion for what caused her death. The anniversary of her death should be an occasion for shaming our politicians.
Students can play a vital role in winning this social change – as they did in the past when students’ unions bravely broke laws banning abortion information. Colleges could organise forums on abortion rights where parties would be pinned down as to whether they’ll support the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly. On-campus rallies for choice could be held. A massive registration campaign will also be necessary once a referendum is called.
Social change is never gifted by parliaments, it always comes from movements on the ground. That was the case with every civil right – they were won, not granted.
Social change is never gifted by parliaments, it always comes from movements on the ground. That was the case with every civil right – they were won, not granted.
All parties and individual TDs now have to be challenged. Some of the members of the traditional parties do actually believe women are vessels. Others simply hide. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil can’t be allowed stand over their medieval position any longer.
But even parties favouring repeal, such as Labour, the Greens, and Social Democrats, still have thresholds of suffering through which they think women should have to go through before an abortion is even considered. It is not acceptable that parties who are pro-repeal are considering less of a health ground than what is in the 50-year-old UK abortion law.
Sinn Féin, while supporting repeal, doesn’t even have a position of health at all, only supporting abortion as a “grave” threat to a woman’s mental health – in effect, the suicide ground that already exists and under which it is impossible for women to access abortions, as we have seen in the recent Handmaid’s Tale, in which the cruelty to a suicidal rape victim is explicit. Sinn Féin has an Ard Fheis in November and should be lobbied to change its position. If not now, when?
Claims are too often made that times are “historic”. But there certainly is an opportunity to win historic social change in Ireland – yes, even the repeal of the odious eighth amendment inflicted on us by the Catholic right and enacted by opportunist politicians. But also the scope of abortion legislation can be determined by the strength of the movement in the coming months. We would then press on for the full separation of church and state in this country. Let’s resolve to win what really would be historic social change for women, for pregnant people and for this generation.
Ruth Coppinger is a TD for Dublin West and a member of Solidarity–People Before Profit. She has been a prominent voice in the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment.
