The former Master of the National Maternity Hospital, Peter Boylan, is among the speakers lined up for the launch of the Together For Yes group, which aims to bring together the disparate elements of those campaigning to repeal the 8th Amendment. The referendum vote is scheduled to take place in May of this year.

Boylan has been a powerful voice in the debate so far, effectively debunking many of the myths, and the propaganda, which have been circulated, as a form of disinformation, by the anti-choice campaign to date. As a former Master of there National Maternity Hospital, Boylan is uniquely well placed to give a truthful and unbiased view on all of the medical and gynaecological aspects of abortion.

Together for Yes is being described as the national people’s campaign. Those involved are strongly advocating a Yes vote in the upcoming referendum on the Eighth Amendment. The launch will take place in the Rotunda Hospital tomorrow, Thursday, 22 March 2018.

The MC for the event is the columnist and novelist, Martina Devlin. She is a former winner of the Hennessy Literary Award, and has twice been names Columnist of the Year. She has written seven novels, the last – entitled About Sisterland – having been published in 2015. Her book on the financial collapse in Ireland, Banksters, written with RTÉ’s David Murphy, was a No.1 bestseller.

Speaking at tomorrow’s event will be:

Retired Supreme Court Justice Catherine McGuinness;
Gaye and Gerry Edwards, a Wicklow couple who travelled to England for an induced delivery after their son was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality;
Dr Peter Boylan, a consultant obstetrician and former master of the National Maternity Hospital;
Ailbhe Smyth, Orla O’Connor and Grainne Griffin, Co-Directors of Together for Yes.

Commenting in advance of the launch, Orla O’Connor Co-Director of Together for Yes, said: “We are delighted to be officially launching Together for Yes tomorrow, the national people’s campaign to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution. We are a diverse campaign representing a broad cross-section of Irish society, but we are rooted in a single aim: to remove the harmful Eighth Amendment so that women in Ireland receive the care they need in their own country.”