REFERENDUM WEEK
I believe that the 8th Amendment is harming women and is putting women in Ireland at risk. Over the years, it has caused grave harm and sometimes death, with Savita Hallappanavar being a case in point.
It harms a woman’s emotional, physical and psychological health.
We need to provide care, compassion and change for women in Ireland who require an abortion.
Only by changing the current situation can we achieve this.
At the moment we do not have the constitutional space to provide proper medical care to women with crisis pregnancies.
A Yes vote is crucially important for the wellbeing of all women in Ireland, particularly for low paid and vulnerable women.
The removal of the 8th amendment is the only compassionate way to ensure women obtain the care they desperately need during a crisis pregnancy.
Trust your mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and all the other women in your life to make the right decision about their own bodies
Women need to be able to make private, personal decisions about their healthcare with the support of their doctors and families.
They need regulated, safe and legal care.
Irish women are having abortions. Most are compelled to travel to the UK whilst others are taking abortion pills at home in the secrecy of their bedrooms and bathrooms without medical supervision.
If it was your loved one, would you want her to be protected and have access to care, at a time in her life when she is at her most vulnerable?
If your mother, sister, niece or aunt was put in a situation whereby they had a crisis pregnancy, would you want her to be cared for and supported in her own country?
Repealing the 8th is the only civilised way to address crisis pregnancies, result- ing from rape incest etc.
This view is shared by the Chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Dr Peter Boylan.
Those who receive a devastating diagnosis of fatal foetal anomaly should receive the care they require from the Irish health system.
The only way to change how Ireland treats women in these crisis situations is by voting YES on May 25 th.
We know the 8th amendment harms women in Ireland and puts them at risk.
It should be repealed to create a more compassionate, supportive environment for our daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, aunts and nieces.
May 25 th gives us a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to remove the Eighth amendment and to say goodbye to decades of this blunt constitutional instrument causing harm and distress to women in crisis pregnancies.
Therefore, it is incredibly important that people vote on Friday 25 th.
The 8th amendment ought to be removed from the constitution as it has been used to inflict needless pain and harm to Irish women. Article written by - Denise Curran (inset) an activist in the Mandate Trade Union in Sligo and a member of the Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th