Irish are urged to come home to vote in abortion law referendum
As the country heads to the polls tomorrow, Radhika Sanghani hears six emotional stories from both sides of the fraught debate
NEARLY 40,000 Irish citizens have been urged to return home to vote in a referendum on repealing the country’s tough abortion laws, in the hope of tipping the odds in favour of reform.
According to the latest polls, 56 per cent of the country will vote to repeal Ireland’s eighth amendment, which allows abortions only in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, while 27 per cent oppose reform, and around one in seven are undecided.
One poll on Sunday suggested that support for repeal was growing, in an apparent reversal of a recent trend that suggested the result would be too close to call. Though the pro-choice Yes campaign has held a consistent majority since the referendum was announced, experts warn the high number of undecided voters – and concerns of “abortion on demand” in Ireland – could produce a shock No vote.
As a result, Ireland’s cohort of workers in the EU and beyond are flocking back to the emerald isle – encouraged by the Hometovote campaign – to cast their vote in what many regard as a long overdue vote on women’s rights.
Some are returning from as far away as Kenya, Canada and Australia.
Erica, a 25-year-old from County Kildare who lives and works in Brussels, told The Daily Telegraph: “Voting Yes will allow more compassionate legislation so that women can choose what is right for them.
“It’s not necessarily pro-abortion, it’s pro-choice. Having that option for a multitude of reasons is very important and women do not have that option,” said the PR professional. Bláithin Carroll, 21, who works in London, said she would vote Yes in support of her grandmother, who was forced to carry her pregnancy to term despite suffering from a fatal fetal abnormality.
“She should not have had this experience, and over 50 years later, women of Ireland should not be having this experience. No Irish woman in the future should have this experience, no matter the circumstances of her pregnancy.
“I’m travelling home to vote with the hope that my one journey from the UK to Ireland will help prevent the 3,000 journeys taken every year by women travelling for abortion services abroad, because their own country turned them away,” she said.
Not everyone who is coming home plans to vote Yes, however. The prochoice group Love Both, for example, is also calling on young conservative voters to return to Ireland and cast their vote for No. “I think babies deserve the right to life and deserve protection just like everybody else, and I don’t think this is the best thing for women, I think women deserve better than abortions,” said Rebecca, a prolife voter flying back to Dublin from London, in a No campaign video.
The Catholic church has also strongly opposed repealing the eighth amendment. In a statement, Irish bishops warned: “We believe that the deletion or amendment of this article can have no other effect than to expose unborn children to greater risk and that it would not bring about any benefit for the life or health of women in Ireland.”
Ireland has some of the strictest abortion laws in the world. Currently, terminations are only sanctioned if the mother’s life is at risk. It is illegal even in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape or incest. Tomorrow, Ireland will vote on whether to change this – altering the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which gives equal right to life for the mother and the unborn child.
It was introduced in 1983, and if repealed, it will give the country a chance to relax a law that currently holds a 14-year prison sentence for anyone who aborts a child outside of the legal stipulations.
For many, voting “yes” to repeal the Eighth would finally give Irish women the right to safe, legal terminations in their own country, without having to take illegal pills or travel to England – as around 3,000 do each year. But for others, it is an unimaginable move that would take away the rights of an unborn child.
The issue is highly divisive and has been going on for the last three decades – and, according to polls, the referendum result, which will be announced on Saturday, is currently too close to call.
Here we speak to people with strong views on either side – all of which stem from their own difficult experiences…
I had an illegal abortion Rita, 28
I was devastated when I found out I was pregnant at 22. I wasn’t working, and my new boyfriend was in England while I was in Ireland. I was not able to become a mother at all.
As I was just 10 weeks pregnant, I knew I could take abortion pills instead of travelling to England. I ordered them online from a safe website, run by pro-choice doctors. I had them sent to a friend who lives in Northern Ireland, because Irish customs officers had been known to seize them.
I knew I could face up to 14 years in prison, but as no one had been jailed in recent times, I wasn’t too worried. But I was really worried about being stopped from accessing the pills. If someone confiscated them, I’d have to wait another two weeks and then I’d be past the 12-week deadline for an early medical abortion.
I told very few people, but now, I’m starting to open up. I hope my story will help others vote “yes” to change the law so that, in the future, women who aren’t ready to be mothers won’t be breaking the law.
My abortion helped me leave an abusive relationship Ciara, 35
I got pregnant aged 20. I was in a pretty abusive relationship, in Dublin, and already had an 11-monthold baby. I knew that if I had another, I’d never leave the relationship and I’d end up dead.
My only way out was an abortion. I came from a strict Catholic family – my mum wore a pin against abortion – but I couldn’t afford a trip to England alone, so I had to ask them for help. She gave me the money, and we never discussed it again.
I have never regretted it. I managed to leave my relationship and it was because of the abortion. I don’t think it’s right Irish women have to be shipped to the UK and I felt very hard done by that I wasn’t able to get the medical care I needed at home.
That was 15 years ago and little has changed. Why should women like myself be threatened with imprisonment?
The Eighth Amendment saved my life Gavin, 20
My mum was 15 when she got pregnant. It was a one-night stand, and my father disappeared when he found out. My mum was so young and had no idea what to do, so she asked her parents. In the end they decided to send her to England to have an abortion.
But while she was there, they started looking into the legal side of things. They always knew it was illegal in Ireland but not why. When they read about the Eighth Amendment, it made them recognise the value of every single unborn child, and so after a lot of thinking and conversations with my mum, they all decided that she
couldn’t go through with the abortion. Instead they would support her to have her baby – me.
It’s the reason I’m alive today, and my mum is really happy she didn’t go through with it. I know that she would have regretted the abortion if she’d had it.
My first time on a plane was to get my abortion Janet, 42
When I was 18, I was working and in a steady relationship. But our contraception failed. I knew I wasn’t ready to become a mother.
I was lucky that my partner was supportive, I had a passport, could get a loan and had access to abortion information. It wasn’t easy back then – with no internet or mobile I had to use pay phones to organise it all
– but I managed to make the appointment.
It was my first time on a plane, and we told everyone we were going on a romantic weekend. It was all very upsetting. When we came back home we couldn’t really talk about it.
But if I hadn’t made that decision, my life today would be totally different, and I wouldn’t have my two children with the man I went on to meet after that abortion.
My daughter is now 14. I’m voting yes because I never, ever want her to be in that situation.
I regret my abortion Bernadette, 50s
I come from rural Ireland but moved to England to work aged 19, and soon got pregnant. I felt trapped. I couldn’t tell my parents and didn’t want to lose my life as I knew it.
When a doctor suggested termination, I thought, wonderful, I can do it here; my family in Ireland will never find out. There were no mentions of risks to my mental or physical health.
After the abortion, I felt relief but very soon after that turned into grief. I became paranoid and had nightmares about my aborted baby. Even when I went back to Ireland, married and had three children, I felt there was always an empty space in my family that’s never been filled. I’d be horrified if the Eighth Amendment was repealed. I’m convinced that had I been living in Ireland at the time, my baby would be alive today.
I was told to abort my baby Anita, 31
It was at my 12-week scan that I was told my baby probably had a chromosomal abnormality. I was devastated.
I was living in Abu Dhabi at the time, and was given the option to terminate by the doctor. They said it would be kinder and more compassionate, and as it was illegal in that country, they set about organising for me to go to England.
My husband was back home in Ireland and went to see a geneticist there. He suggested another option: that I have an amniocentesis to double check for genetic disorders. He couldn’t be positive it would work, but it gave us hope. We went ahead and to our relief, we found out at 22 weeks that my baby was OK. I gave birth to Conor, now 18 months old, in Ireland. He’s a beautiful healthy boy, but for the first year of his life, I was haunted by the stress of “what if ”.
I can’t vote to remove an amendment that could mean my future children would have no right to life until birth. We need to amend our constitution to deal with the difficult cases, not repeal the right to life of all unborn babies.