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Over the past few years, pro-choice campaigners across the country have come together to fight for the rights of Irish women. 

In one of the biggest political movements seen in recent times, abortion rights groups have worker tirelessly to push for a referendum to repeal the Eight Amendment – and now, with an indicative timeline confirmed, we must fight harder than ever to make sure our voices are heard. 

In the build up to this Saturday's March for Choice in Dublin city, we spoke to Clare Lanigan from Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC), about the campaign goals, her work as a volunteer, and the significance of events such as these. 

Established in 2012, ARC is a grassroots, all-volunteer campaign advocating for free, safe and legal abortion in Ireland. As well as promoting the referendum to repeal the Eight, it also has a broader goal in making sure that the procedure is available to anyone who may need or want it.

After joining ARC as a volunteer in 2016, Clare explained what drew her to the campaign: 

"I was always very pro-choice but I wasn't really much of a 'joiner' – I would just kind of watch from the outside."

"The success of the marriage equality referendum was quite inspiring to me, even though the actual process I thought was difficult. I thought looking from the outside in,  it seemed really hard on LGBT people to kind of have to politely beg for rights. I did think that the campaign had a really inspiring outcome, so that kind of made me feel like change was possible." 

The role of an ARC volunteer is varied and rewarding. Those interested in getting involved are invited to take on positions that play to their strengths and interests, meaning there's something to suit everybody. 

Clare explained: "Most times when people volunteer they come to one of our open meetings, which are held once a month."

"People can sign up to a group depending on their particular skills or interests. There's admin, media, policy and advocacy, partners and outreach, and actions."

"I was interested in admin and in media so I signed up for those and started going to meetings and just kind of found tasks to do and went from there really."

Organisations such as ARC would not survive without the help of volunteers like Clare. The campaign is run entirely by people who have given up their time for free. 

"We've no paid staff, so all these events (march for choice, etc.) don't happen without the work of volunteers. Generally in pro-choice campaigning it's nearly always people giving their time for free."

Marches, demonstrations and the dissemination of information, are all part of what make the role of an ARC volunteer so fulfilling, however, Clare says watching the regional groups go from strength to strength has been her real highlight so far. 

"I've been really inspired seeing all the regional groups that have developed – we've always had regional groups, but over the past year they've gone from strength to strength."

"Groups in Meath, groups in Kerry, Galway, Cork, Sligo, Donegal, all over the place and so more and more people are getting involved and they're all going to be joining us at the march now on Saturday which is great because we've had regional groups before, but this is going to be the largest group yet."

While the government have committed to a referendum on the Eight Amendment in May or June of next year, Clare believes this is just the beginning.    

“The key message we want to get out there is 'repeal not replace' – we don't want more stuff in the constitution about abortion… simplicity and clarity is what we'll be looking for."

"More broadly we're really advocating strongly for more than limited access. We think it's really important to get the message out that only having exception based access, which a lot of politicians seem to think is the way forward, is not good enough."

"We're pushing very strongly for broad access which is what the citizen's assembly decided on when they went through their deliberations – so, if random members of the public can come to that conclusion, we're pretty sure the population at large can come to the same conclusion."

"A referendum is not the end of the story, in fact, in some ways, it's only the begining."

If you'd like to get involved in the campaign, ARC are looking for volunteers to hand out flyers this Thursday and Friday night. You can register your interest by e-mailing info@abortionrights.ie – or if you'd like to volunteer on a ongoing basis, new recruits are invited to pop along to the open meetings which are held once a month. You can find more information and the full calendar of events here. 

ARC are also hosting speak out on Thursday evening, offering women a safe space to talk about their abortion experiences without any judgement or without any expectation.

And don't forget to head along to the March for Choice in Dublin City Centre this Saturday, September 30. It all kicks off at 2pm at the Garden of Remembrance. 

See you there, ladies! 

Feature Image: Twitter 

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The move to secure reproductive rights for Irish women has been a major social and political issue in Ireland in recent years, as the call to repeal the 8th amendment has gained major traction.

One Instagram page popped up recently and caught our eye in a big way, as it shared a number of harrowing quotes from women who have faced the daunting issue in Ireland.

Not At Home is an art campaign which aims to make visible the experience of Irish women who have travelled abroad to procure safe terminations.

 

A post shared by notathome (@notathomeireland) on

The collective want to make the lived experiences of women who travel visible to the public.

'We want to make visible the Irish women travelling to access safe abortion services,' reads the project description.

'We are inviting women to contribute confidentially or otherwise.'

 

A post shared by notathome (@notathomeireland) on

The collective are also selling jumpers carrying their slogan – 'Not not at all, just not at home.'

They can be found online or in store at Nine Crows from either their Dublin or Galway locations. 

All proceeds from the sales of these jumpers go to covering the costs of the Not At Home production in this year's Dublin Fringe Festival

 

A post shared by notathome (@notathomeireland) on

The production, called Not at Home, will be free, and will depict the awful extents that Irish women are forced to go to in order to have a safe abortion. 

'Since April 2016, we have been collecting anonymous testimonies from women online.'

'We now have a crowd-sourced text of these women’s experiences of travelling abroad.'

'In June 2017, we visited BPAS Merseyside in Liverpool.'

'From these texts and our experience of recreating this journey, we are creating a durational art work featuring video, sound installation and live performance.'

The performance will take place at NCAD as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. 

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Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has urged Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to liberalise Ireland's restrictive abortion laws.

The leaders met in Montreal yesterday to discuss a range of issues including human rights, and the controversial Eight Amendment.

“On the issue of reproductive rights, I shared our perspective that such rights are integral to women’s rights and they are human rights and I asked him to look at it as a fundamental human right and we had a good discussion,” he said. 

Mr Trudeau's advice comes after the hashtag #JustinformLeo went viral this weekend, as Irish women took to Twitter to ask the Canadian leader to discuss the issue of Ireland's abortion ban during the visit.

Following a successful meeting, the two leaders marched in the Montreal Pride parade yesterday afternoon.

Leo will now travel to Toronto where he is due to discuss growing trade, tourism, and investment between Ireland and Canada.

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Women in Ireland continue to fight for their reproductive rights, but the Irish government has been slow to act on their call to action.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is in Canada this weekend to visit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and pro-choice women are calling on the leader to discuss the issue of Ireland's abortion ban while he's there. 

The hashtag #JustinformLeo is going viral this afternoon, as women take to Twitter to beseech the PM to tell the Taoiseach how they feel:

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The moniker of nasty woman has been twisted from Trump's original insulting intentions towards Hillary Clinton into a fierce description for a woman who knows what she believes and isn't afraid to get loud when fighting for her rights. 

Women have taken back the term, and now it is defining a very interesting event that's kicking off in Dublin City tonight. 

Nasty Women Dublin is a global art movement, bringing together artists who identify with being a Nasty Woman 'in the face of threats to roll back women’s rights, individual rights, and abortion rights. '

The collective are playing host to a fundraising event in the Pallas Projects Studio at 6,30pm this evening.

'Nasty Women Dublin is a fundraising exhibition that celebrates the strength and diversity of art by female artists in Ireland, and which acts to promote the cause of women's rights, in particular reproductive rights and The Campaign to Repeal the 8th Amendment,' reads the event description. 

The event itself is free, but all proceeds from the art sold at the event will go towards supporting the  Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment  and the Artists' Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. 

The event will kick off with a performance by Margaretta D'arcy, entitled 'I am a killer they say.'

Attendees can then peruse the art selection while listening to the tunes of DJing triad Eve. 

This event is definitely unmissable. 

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A further two suicidal women were turned down for access to legal terminations last year. 

This way despite the fact that they met the criteria to access an abortion in Ireland. 

A Department of Health report released this week said that 25 women were granted legal terminations in Ireland last year, according to The Times.

Of these 25, one was suicidal. 

This follows on from last month's revelations, when it became public knowledge that another two women were denied access despite being suicidal and attempting to commit suicide multiple times. 

'Both of these women were basically told that they weren't suicidal enough,' Mara Clarke, the founder of the Abortion Support Network charity, said at the time.

According to the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act 2013, a termination can be carried out when 'there is a real and substantial risk of loss of the woman’s life by way of suicide.'

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Two women who were at risk of suicide were denied abortions in Ireland. 

Both women had tried to commit suicide more than once, and sought to have legal abortions. 

The women were immigrants who would have needed a Visa to travel to the UK to procure a termination, according to the Abortion Support Network 

'Both of these women were basically told that they weren't suicidal enough,' Mara Clarke, the founder of the Abortion Support Network charity, told The Times.

'One woman was refused her visa to travel for an abortion and attempted suicide for the third time,' she said.

After the third attempt, the woman was granted a termination. 

'The termination was carried out much later than it should have been because of the delay,' she said. 

In response to the revelations, Minister for Health Simon Harris reportedly said: 'This is an issue that, as a nation, we now need to deal with definitively.'

The Abortion Support Network provides financial assistance and accommodation to women forced to travel fom the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man to access abortion services.

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A petition is currently spreading across social media in the wake of the publication of the Child Care Law Reporting Project, which revealed that a 14-year-old child was sectioned in a psychiatric unit for seeking an abortion. 

The child and her mother believed they were being transferred to Dublin for a termination before realising that she was being admitted to a mental health unit.

Her psychiatrist told her abortion was 'not the solution' to her problems, despite the child feeling suicidal due to her pregnancy. 

The petition, which began circulating yesterday evening, has garnered 8,051 of 9,000 necessary signatures. 

'A young pregnant girl was incarcerated under the Mental Health Act because she wanted an abortion,' reads the petition description.  

'The Government needs to guarantee that nothing like this can ever again happen.'

'Our laws are like living in the dark ages when it comes to abortion and I want to think that my own young daughter will have the choice and option to make her own decisions over her own body- not some psychiatrist who knows nothing about her but has a pro-life agenda of his/her own,' reads one of the powerful comments on the petition.

'The criminalisation of women just for having wombs in this country is absolutely vile, and this case concerning a GIRL is vulgar, it's primitive, it's despicable, it's disgusting.'

'I can't contain my rage,' said another.

'Looking at the report, it’s hard not to think that the psychiatrist in this case essentially used the Mental Health Act as a tool to force a child into continuing an unwanted pregnancy because of their own personal beliefs" said Abortion Rights Campaign spokesperson Linda Kavanagh.

Feature Image: My Uplift: People Powered Change – To: Leo Varadkar – Taoiseach in Waiting Women Should Not Be Locked Up Because They Want An Abortion

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Abortion pills bought online can provide a ‘safe and effective’ outcome for women who wish to have a non-surgical termination, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal.

The study was carried out by a team at the University of Texas who, along with online group Women on Web, analysed data from over 1,000 women in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland who had sought to terminate unwanted pregnancies through the use of abortion pills. 

After seeking follow-up information from over 1,000 women in Ireland, researchers determined that 95 per cent of those who took these abortion pills had the desired result. 

Each of these women had previously purchased abortion pills online through WoW, and reported back on their experiences. 

78 per cent were under seven weeks pregnant, while the remaining 22 per cent were seven to nine weeks pregnant.

According to the study, 'self-sourced medical abortion provides a vital alternative to dangerous methods such as using sharp objects or noxious substance.'

93 women out of the 1,000 surveyed experienced symptoms which required them to seek medical attention, and 87 of these women actually did seek medical attention after taking the pills.

'No deaths…were reported by family, friends, the authorities of the media,' the study authors wrote in the British Medical Journal report.

The purchase and import of abortion pills is currently illegal in the Republic of Ireland, as well as in Northern Ireland.

However, recent developments have been made thanks to the Citizens' Assembly and the work of the Repeal Project, with calls for the 8th Amendment which prohibit abortion to be changed or abolished. 

'Often media reports in Ireland imply early medical abortion with pills is unsafe – this study shows that that simply isn’t the case,' said Abortion Rights Campaign spokesperson Linda Kavanagh in a statement.

'In countries where medical abortion is legal, women are largely unsupervised while taking the pill.'

'In the UK for example women ingest the first pill at an abortion clinic, but then go home to have their abortion.'

'Our governments continue to shirk their responsibility to women despite having a clear mandate to introduce proper abortion access North and South, following the results of the Citizens’ Assembly and various reports by human rights watchdogs,' she continued.

'Our politicians are happy to outsource their responsibility to other countries and organisations that provide the abortion pill illegally.'

'Our current laws are irresponsible, cowardly and lazy. If the physical and mental health of women on this island is being put at risk, it is the fault of our legislators – and not these pills which have been used safely, in both supervised and unsupervised contexts for almost 30 years,' she concluded. 

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Mark your diaries and dust off your Repeal jumpers, because this year's March for Choice has a date.

The Abortion Rights Campaign has shared a Facebook event for the march, which is set to take place on September 30 this year.

Estimates put the number of attendees at last year's March for Choice at over 20,000.

With the success of the Strike for Repeal, which saw approximately 15,000 people take to O'Connell Bridge in Dublin for a day of peaceful strike action against the government's choice to maintain the 8th amendment, and the outcome of the recent Citizens' Assembly, this year's march is set to be bigger than ever.

We'll see you there!

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Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has spoken out about the Citizens' Assembly decision to replace or amend the 8th amendment. 

The Minister told RTÉ  that 'the Constitution is not the place to deal with this very complex issue.'

'It's best dealt with between a woman and her doctors.'

'But of course you also have to have an appropriate legislative basis. My own thinking is that there should be a referendum next year.'

'Over the next few months, the all-party Oireachtas committee will consider the Assembly's advice and refine it into a proposal that can be put to the people,' said Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadaker, in a statement obtained by RTÉ.

'I believe that once this has been done, a final proposal should be put in a referendum in 2018 so that the people can have their say.'

The Citizens' Assembly voted in favour of access to abortions without restrictions over the weekend.

Despite an Amnesty International Ireland poll which found that 80 per cent of Irish people would vote yes in a referendum to repeal the the 8th amendment, Pro Life Campaign  spokesperson Cora Sherlock has said that 'it’s far from certain that it would pass.'

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Strike 4 Repeal have called for a strike to demonstrate their opinion on the 8th amendment to the government. 

The people of Ireland are being asked to strike in support of the 11 women who have to take time off work every single day in order to travel abroad to procure abortions. 

#Strike4Repeal is taking place on March 8, which aptly happens to be International Women's Day, and a number of businesses have signed up in support of the strike. 

Aungier Danger, the Townsend bar, Bang Bang Café, The Brendan Behan pub, The Elbowroom, A4 Sounds, Nine Crows Street, Rothar and Sexsiopa.ie are among the first businesses to formally support the campaign.

Strike 4 Repeal are asking that the businesses shut down for the day in solidarity, or that the most affected staff be offered time off work to participate in the demonstration. 

The group describes themselves as "an ad-hoc, non-affiliated group of activists, academics, artists and trade unionists preparing a nationwide Strike for Repeal on the 8th of March 2017."

"Our demand is that the Irish government call a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment by the 8th of March. If not, Ireland will strike," reads a statement on their Facebook page.

"The strike will not be an industrial strike in the traditional sense but could include taking an annual leave day off work, refraining from domestic work for the day, wearing black in solidarity or staging a walkout during your lunch break."

"We also encourage any business owners in a position to close their services at no cost to workers, to do so for all or part of the day as a solidarity action."

Other organisations which have signed up to support the march include the Abortion Rights Campaign, Aims Ireland, Anti Racism Network Ireland, MASI, Trinity College Strike 4 Repeal Feminist Society, Maynooth Feminist Society, NUIG, NCAD Feminist Society, Limerick Feminist Network, Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, and People Before Profit, according to the Facebook post.

The post calls on any other organisations or businesses who would like to get involved to contact them at strike4repeal@gmail.com. 

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