Vote that devalues women’s autonomy

Sir — It is practically unfathomable to me that throughout the history of human experience, women have generally not been afforded full personhood. We have been legally less entitled to have a rich and varied life.

Only within the last few generations of human experience have women legally held any role outside of the domestic, after all 5,000 years of recorded human history. Recognition of full female personhood took a hit here in Ireland 1983, when the Eighth Amendment was enacted. Any woman’s full and rich lived history became equivalent to a spark of life, a potential that does not even carry a possibility of independent life. Today, we as women have the opportunity to stand forward and reclaim our personhood. Whether or not you want abortion to exist, your No vote devalues a woman’s life and autonomy. Her very right to personhood. She is probably your mother, your sister, your friend. She is you. Deirdre Murphy, Dublin 7