Trinity, as well as a number of other public buildings, has been lit up green for International Safe Abortion Day. The Europe-wide initiative is a partnership with the Centre for Reproductive Rights and other similar organisations, and it aims to demand access to safe and legal abortion care around the world. This comes two days after the March for Choice last Saturday, as campaigners marched to make abortion more accessible in Ireland.
The National Women’s Council (NWC) coordinated the green illumination of a number of public buildings, including Mansion House and Trinity. 10 other locations across Europe saw buildings being lit up in this way, including London, Paris, Barcelona and Geneva.
However, on Friday, the NWC put out a statement expressing how they were disappointed that the lighting up of Belfast City Hall had been halted despite having had plans to go ahead. The statement came before Belfast City Hall confirmed it would be halted, despite a majority vote by the NWC, an all-island body, in favour of the illumination back in August. Following the vote, the council was required to seek legal opinion, which was understood to be impossible to do by today.
The initiative is also commemorated by the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and several non-EU governments.
Speaking ahead of the 15th Annual March for Choice last Saturday, the Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC) convener Lauran Kilmartin stated, “Our fight for free, safe, legal, local, accessible abortion did not end with Repeal. Many people do not realise how inaccessible abortion can be in this country until they need it. We have heard countless stories over the last eight years of the barriers people face in accessing this essential healthcare. Every day, people are forced past the legal limit for abortion in Ireland due to the mandatory 3-day waiting period, 12-week gestational limit, uneven regional access, and reluctance by medical professionals who fear criminal penalties. These barriers compound the accessibility issues already facing migrants, disabled people, trans people, and other marginalised communities.”
In a press release, the ARC called the mandatory 3-day wait period between requesting and accessing abortion “the most patronising and egregious clauses in our abortion legislation.”
This comes after the HSE told the Oireachtas Health Committee that “there is no clinical requirement for a mandatory three-day waiting period.” The clinical director of the HSE’s National Women and Infants Health Programme acknowledged that a decision on the removal of the waiting period is “ultimately for the Oireachtas” to make.
In a statement to RTE this evening, the Pro Life Campaign said: “We should be uniting as a country to focus on finding ways to reduce the number of abortions taking place rather than the opposite.”
