60  February 2016
O
ne morning recently I woke up to abusive
tweets. “What is it with lesbians hating
unborn babies?? Please explain!”. “Why so
many lesbians pushing abortion when they
should never really need one??!!!”.
As a long-time feminist campaigner and Convenor of
the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, vulgar
interactions from anti-choice supporters are inescap-
able. I’m too long in the activist tooth to let them bother
me (much), but this latest batch does make me wonder.
Why is “lesbian” used as a term of abuse, and what
has it got to do with “hating” babies, or women, or men,
or indeed anything else?
I’d like to tweet back (but I don’t): “Look here, you
with the vituperative tweet finger, I’m a feminist, les-
bian, radical Irish grannie (of two, so far), and I’m
pro-choice because I believe in equality, in human
rights, in justice, and in a world where all women, eve-
rywhere, including my daughter and my granddaughter,
have the right to make decisions for ourselves about
our bodies and our reproductive lives. It’s a national
issue, it’s global and it’s also very personal. So there!”.
The Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment was
set up in recognition of evident and popular demand for
change. Our members include trade unions,
pro-choice and feminist groups, human-
rights organisations and many other NGOs
and groups.
The next year or so will be vitally important
in advancing this issue. It has become a real
election issue. If political soundings are to be
believed, we can expect a “national conver-
sation” after the election in the form of a
Citizens’ Convention, followed by a
referendum.
It is hard to exaggerate the ‘chilling’ impact
of the Eighth Amendment on women, on doc-
tors in preventing them from working in the
best interests of their patients, and on our
society as a whole. What does it say about
respect for women and our capacity to make our own
decisions about our lives? What does it say about
respect for human rights principles?
Successive Governments have ignored robust criti-
cism of the Eight Amendment from UN and other
international human rights bodies.
Even as I write, there’s a woman setting off from Sligo
or Kerry or Wexford or Dublin on that dismal journey to
the UK for an abortion she can’t obtain here with the
support of her partner, her family, her friends, her GP.
There’s another woman getting off the plane on her
lonely trek back, and another desperately trying to find
the money or the vital travel documents, or whatever
else she needs to go abroad for an abortion.
Every day, at least ten women are forced to go through
this exhausting and demeaning process because the
law and the health services fail to provide for women’s
full reproductive needs and rights. We have no idea how
many more women are in tears and desperate because
they don’t have the resources of money, travel papers,
childcare, time off work, good enough health and
capacity, or whatever it is they would need to be able
to make the journey.
We predicted the direct and dangerous implications
of the Eighth Amendment for women when it was intro-
duced into the Constitution in 1983. We have learned
with terrible sadness and anger of women dying. We
have had to bear unwilling witness to innumerable per-
sonal tragedies dragged through the Courts and
exposed in the media.
As women, the Eighth Amendment ensures that our
human rights are consistently breached during preg-
nancy by making a dangerous, unworkable distinction
between our lives and our health. It denies us life-sav-
ing treatment such as chemotherapy. It forces us to
remain pregnant against our will, even in cases of rape,
incest and where a fatal foetal abnormality has been
diagnosed.
The Eighth Amendment puts our health at risk, deny-
ing us options even when the outcomes are clearly
long-term and debilitating. It discriminates against
poor and marginalised women and all those who cannot
travel abroad for an abortion. Disgracefully, it criminal-
ises women for the ‘procurement’ of an abortion,
including women who obtain the abortion pill, the
safest and most straightforward means of abortion. It
criminalises medical professionals who assist women
to do so. It places punitively strict parameters around
the crucial information that reproductive health ser-
vices can provide.
It’s clear that the Eighth Amendment no longer
reflects public opinion, with poll after poll showing
strong support for its repeal. While we certainly don’t
underestimate the amount of work to be done, our
members are committed to the battle ahead. With
public support we will campaign vigorously for repeal
of the Eighth Amendment.
In 2016, we don’t think that’s too much to ask. Do
you?
Ailbhe Smyth is Convenor of the Coalition to Repeal
the Eighth Amendment
I’m pro-choice
because I believe in
equality, in human
rights, in justice, and
in a world where all
women have the right
to make decisions
for ourselves
Let’s despatch
the Eighth
The appeal of repeal
by Ailbhe Smyth
COLUMNS