Irish blogger talks fertility, repealing the eight and changing her mind

With a date for the referendum finally set, the conversation around the eight amendment is louder than ever. 

As both sides prepare to kick off their campaigns, more and more influencers are beginning to voice their stance on the topic 

Jen Morris, or Too Dolly Makeup as she's known to her followers online, recently broke her silence on the subject in an emotional Twitter thread, explaining how a personal battle with fertility shaped her and opinion, before subsequently changing her mind. 

At just 17-years-old, Jen had her ovaries removed over fears that she would develop cancer in a matter of years. 

So, I think it’s time to talk #Repealthe8th I have been pretty silent about it thus far.

I wasn’t silent because I was afraid of what people would think of me, I was silent because I had a personal battle that I had to level with before I could open up.

— Jen (@toodollymakeup) March 27, 2018

When I was 17, I was told by a doctor that if I didn’t have my ovaries removed immediately they would become cancerous in a matter of years.

I have been faced with the fact that I can never have childeren since that day.

— Jen (@toodollymakeup) March 27, 2018

Faced with the reality that she would never be able to have conceive a child, she admitted how she struggled to accept how someone could willingly make the decision to terminate a pregnancy. 

It never really bothered me until I turned 25, it was never something that was relevant to my life.

Now it’s around every corner, every relationship and occupies a lot of my thoughts.

I often feel like I am less of a woman and pretty much “un-loveable”

— Jen (@toodollymakeup) March 27, 2018

Pair this with the fact that I am the broodiest most family orientated person on earth. This is where my problem lay.

I couldn’t mentally level with the fact that someone could get rid of a pregnancy for no greater reason than “I fucked up”

— Jen (@toodollymakeup) March 27, 2018

Understandably, it took Jen a long time to disconnect her personal experience from the greater picture, admitting that for a time she thought she people were just "throwing a child away". 

That was hardest thing for me because here is me that would give ANYTHING to have a child, and some people are just ‘throwing a child away’

It took me a long time to take off my rose tinted glasses and realise that life is just not that easy.

Nobody *WANTS* to have an abortion.

— Jen (@toodollymakeup) March 27, 2018

There is always a deeper reason and that is why we need to #Repealthe8th for all the women who can’t carry a baby to term for whatever reason that may be.

We need to stop making Irish women feel like criminals in their own country, it’s immoral and it needs to change.

— Jen (@toodollymakeup) March 27, 2018

At the end of the day, whether you agree with it or not I think we all know what the right thing to do is.

And that’s my 2cents.#Repealthe8th

— Jen (@toodollymakeup) March 27, 2018