People have the Power to Repeal the 8th

From the likes of Mary Gordon, Goretti Horgan and Pete Nash setting up the tiny Women’s Right To Choose Campaign in 1980, to the thundering chorus that will ring out on September 24 during the March for Choice in Dublin, it’s fair to say that the fight for abortion rights in this country has seen a seismic change in climate over the past 30 years. Right now, it feels as though something historic might just be on the horizon. On every street corner in every town, what might once have seemed like a whisper of discontent – at the shocking way in which Irish women who have been raped, Irish women who have been told that their child has no chance of surviving, even Irish women who have been continually sexually abused and become pregnant as a result are forced to go abroad if they decide they must terminate a pregnancy – has reached a crescendo. The campaign, which has as its immediate objective to Repeal The Eighth, is closer than ever to achieving an outcome that will finally accord women their rights. It is a campaign that has been decades in the making.

“I campaigned against the 8th Amendment being brought in back in 1983,” remembers Cecily Brennan, one of those who last year founded the Artists’ Campaign To Repeal The 8th initiative. “So did the others who started the Artists’ Campaign: Alice Maher, Lia Mills, Eithne Jordan and Paula Meehan. We’re all friends, and after the success of the Marriage Referendum, everyone was saying the next thing would be a vote on the 8th Amendment – it seemed like the logical step.”

There is no doubt that the original referendum was skilfully lobbied into being by the forces of reaction at the time. All of the potentially terrible outcomes were ignored. And there was a high level of emotional manipulation in the way in which the options were represented. But ultimately, Irish politicians and legislators have to take responsibility for the way in which so many Irish women have been mistreated by the State as a result.

“Last week was the 33rd anniversary of the vote being passed,” Cecily says. “I couldn’t even think about it that day: I felt so angry about the fact that, 33 years after knocking on doors canvassing, we’re still here talking about it, asking why nothing has happened? And it really is because the legislators haven’t tackled it.”

Indeed, this is the strange reality that those campaigning in favour of Repeal have had to confront. Despite the huge changes that taken place in Irish society, and the momentum that has built into what is now a mass social movement, only the government can actually move the discussion forward – but they have been remarkably slow to do anything.

“They’ve promised a Citizen’s Assembly on the matter,” notes Orla O’Connor, Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the leading representative group for women in Ireland. “But there also needs to be a realisation that public opinion is far ahead of our political leadership. We have found that Irish people want to see greater access to abortion services. When we decided to start having these conversations, we realised that a huge number of women in Irish society have never been able to voice their views, because they haven’t had a chance to vote. So I think the most important thing now is that this government does something productive on the matter.”

Not that we’ll be holding our breaths. Cecily Brennan is deeply sceptical of the Government’s motivation. “The Citizens’ Assembly is a delaying tactic,” she says simply. “We know from the poll conducted by Amnesty International that 73% of the people want a vote – no matter how they might actually vote in a referendum, they actively want the opportunity to vote – and the only thing that’s preventing it is the cowardice of the legislators, and their fear of what will happen to them if they really grapple with the issues. But these are issues that every country in the world has to deal with.”

She pauses.

“Besides,” she says defiantly. “We already have a Citizens’ Assembly in this country. It’s called Dáil Eireann.”

The Government-style Citizens’ Assembly is due to gather for the first time in October 2016. It will consist of 99 members and Chairperson, Judge Mary Laffoy, and will meet over a series of ten weekends, to examine a number of issues – not all of them yet specified – for the Government. However, the 8th Amendment is chief amongst the items on the agenda.

The well-known polling company, Red C Research and Marketing, have been tasked with pulling together the representatives of the nation, who will then decide whether the citizens at large will have an opportunity to represent themselves in a Referendum on the issue.

There is reason for some disquiet: a perfectly representative sample of the country’s population isn’t easily settled upon in just 100 people. Besides, in a gathering of this kind, on an issue that remains unnecesssarily emotive for a small but significant number of people, there is no telling just how messy any discussion might become. Judge Mary Laffoy is a highly-rated jurist and she has demonstrated her independence of Government in the past when resigning her position as Chair of the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse in 2003, accusing the Government and the Department of Education of frustrating her efforts, thereby negating the guarantee of independence conferred on the Commission. But this particular Citizen’s Assembly is the kind of brief that even the toughest legal mind might find difficult.

In the meantime, an altogether more direct way to voice support for the movement to Repeal The Eighth arrives on September 24, when the March For Choice takes place in Dublin. It is organised by the Abortion Rights Campaign. Founded in 2012 when 40 like-minded souls gathered in Dublin, the ARC has since grown to be the most powerful pro-choice organisation in Ireland, affiliated with any number of smaller local groups across the country.

“We always pick the Saturday closest to the 28th of September, which is International Decriminalisation of Abortion Day,” explains Janet O’Sullivan, who has played a key role in the organisation of this year’s event. “But planning has been ongoing for a long time. We’re lucky enough to have an amazing staff. We’re completely voluntary, so it’s people who have felt strongly about this issue that have pitched in. It’s completely a grassroots effort.”

One is constantly reminded of the way in which the Marriage Equality Referendum campaign developed an unstoppable momentum when one hears the personal testimonies in relation to abortion that have been shared by an increasing number of women, particularly over the last 12 months. At one time, there was a brutalising stigma asociated with abortion in Ireland. Those in the anti-choice camp worked hard to embed a sense of shame among Irish women who felt that abortion was the right choice for them. And the fact that there was a covert aspect to it, where women travelled abroad to secure a termination, added to its secretive, fugitive quality.

The personal stories from individuals like Roisin Ingle and Tara Flynn among others, has enabled so many women to move on from any suggestion that people should be ashamed to acknowledge that they have had an abortion. It is particularly noticeable that, much like the vote last May, the issue seems to have ignited an interest amongst younger people in a way that not all politics does. And they seem to share none of the old-fashioned hang-ups that were drummed into Irish people, in an era when there was one dominant religion in this country.

“I don’t think it’s surprising really that young people are energised about the issue,” says Union of Students in Ireland President, Annie Hoey, emphasising the strong pro-choice stance that the student body has officially taken for some time. Indeed Student Unions were directly targeted by anti-choice groups, when the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) took cases against USI, UCD Students’ Union and Trinity College Students’ Union in the earl7 1990s.

“Stephen Grogan was President of the USI during the SPUC case,” Annie says, referring to what was a landmark case in which SPUC sought – ultimately successfully – to prevent information on travelling abroad for abortions being made available to students. “We’ve consistently had a stance on providing access to abortion and repealing the Eighth, for as far back as I can find our records going.”

Annie has noticed a distinct shift in the mood. “While there’s always been a rumbling of things happening,” Hoey continues, “with Amnesty International and various political parties taking positions on it, what you’re finding now is that people genuinely want to be informed, in a way they may not have done before.

“Even ten years ago, when I first went to college, there was a sense of ‘How does this affect me?’ And if it didn’t people might not engage. Now, there’s a different atmosphere in the air, and a tangible desire to find out more about the abortion issue.”

Which is, of course, the way it should be...

That, of course, raises the question as to where people are getting their information. As seen recently with the undercover video taken at The Women’s Centre (so called) in Dublin, there is a disgustingly insidious and dishonest campaign of disinformation afoot, with anti-choice groups presenting themselves as offering counselling, but in reality peddling propoganda. On top of that are the often scurrilous personalised, aggressive activities of so called ‘pro-life’ organisations, buttressed by the hate spewed by the trolls, in the too often sinister free-for-all that is social media and the internet. One recalls the appalling photoshopping of the photograph of comedian Tara Flynn, in which the Repeal the Eighth message on her t-shirt was changed to “I murdered my only child.”

“There is a lot of misinformation out there,” opines the WCI’s O’Connor, “So it’s worth our while actually getting out and talking to people. The WCI is going to start having a series of conversations with women and men in their local organisations, to speak about why we really do need to have abortion services within our health service. A lot of women have spoken about the trauma of having an abortion and what we would be saying is that abortion is very much a reality but how we’re dealing with it – because it’s criminalised, because we’re forcing women to travel – is making the stress on women really significant, in a way it simply doesn’t have to be.”

We have seen in the Brexit vote how lies and disinformation can sometimes sway people – and the anti-choice groups are past masters at this. They don’t care that the reality is that most women who have abortions know, in the long run, that it was the right decision for them to make. They insist, against all the evidence, that any woman who has an abortion will regret it forever.

In the context of aggressive disinformation of this kind, the emergence of people who really have the authority to speak is crucial. The medical profession in Ireland has historically been deeply conservative, with many doctors fearing that they might be deprived of promotion in a system which sees religious orders being centrally involved in managing hospitals.

Against that backdrop, the formation of Doctors For Choice, who are committed to giving accurate health information on the subject of abortion and its effects, is an enormously important development – and their collective voice is proving hugely valuable to the campaign. So too has the establishment of the Association for Improvement of Maternity Services (AIMS), founded in 2007 by a group of like-minded women, who felt compelled to act, following their own first-hand experience of major problems with maternity care in this country.

Indeed, this has become a central aspect of the argument to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. However you view the decisions that were taken by medical staff during the terrible events that unfolded when the young mother-to-be Savita Halappanaver went, in all innocence and hope, to University Hospital Galway and died within days as a result of a septic stillbirth, there can be no doubt that the Eighth Amendment was a key factor in the unwillingness on the part of doctors and staff alike to act decisively to end the pregnancy and save Savita’s life.

Anti-choice groups have constantly made the claim that Ireland is one of the safest places in the world to have a baby. Indeed so frequently has this myth been peddled that it has achieved the status of received wisdom, with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny among those who has referred to it as if it were fact. The disturbing reality is that the 2014 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report measured the mortality rate in Irish maternity hospitals as nine deaths per 100,000 births. This is higher than in 30 countries – 25 of them in the EU, including the UK, where the mortality rate is eight per 100,000 – making Ireland one of the un-safest places in the world’s wealthier countries to have a baby. Which is why the Association for Improvement of Maternity Services is so important.

I remember speaking to a group from AIMS during a protest shortly after the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar and it was quite clear that every mother among them knew that as catastrophic and disgraceful an event could just as easily have befallen them.

But where do men fit into all of this? Cecily Brennan insists that it is vital that the movement should not be limited by gender. “You only have to look at the testimonies that we’re hearing,” she says, “and the way in which entire families are impacted, to understand that this is an issue to affect everyone. This is an issue of how the State treats its citizens.”
The procrastination by political parties notwithstanding, the campaign to Repeal the 8th is clearly gathering momentum. There’s a certain irony that, in an age where long-distance communication is instantaneous and campaigns can be won and lost on the basis of tweets and memes, one of the most iconic statements in the Repeal journey has come in the form of a black and white jumper.

“That was my whole idea,” admits Anna Cosgrove, the woman behind the ubiquitous design. “I wanted to take the conversation offline, and invite strangers to have a conversation around the 8th Amendment.”

As The Sultans of Ping highlighted, there is a peculiarly Irish emphasis to the (Where’s Me) jumper!

“It’s using outerwear as a mechanism to voice a hidden problem,” Anna reflects. “And, as far as I am concerned, it’s black and white. The media, and the critical rhetoric, has been to continually say it’s a grey area but for me – and for the Abortion Rights Campaign, my partner organisation – it’s not. You’re pro-choice or anti-choice.”

For many pro-choice campaigners, a referendum to Repeal the Eighth would be a welcome step in the long campaign for women’s rights in this country. However, if and when the Referendum is won, there is still the issue of the kind of regime that will be put in place. Free, safe and legal abortion is the goal for the ARC, USI, and many other organisations and women’s groups.

Exactly how the ensuing legislation would be shaped is almost impossible to answer at this point however – which is why the Artists’ Campaign has specifically focused on Repeal.

“I don’t think it’s going to be simple,” says Brennan. “What we’ve said, right from the start, is that the 8th Amendment should be removed from the Constitution – and we don’t know what happens after that. We’re professional artists, not medics or lawyers. In a way, our campaign is bracketed at Repealing the 8th, because we felt it was a realistic ambition.”

The fact that this is not just a liberal, urban view has been confirmed again and again recently. “Think about the survey they had on The Claire Byrne Show at the National Ploughing Championships,” USI’s Annie Hoey points out, “where 64% were in favour of repeal. There’s this view that people over a certain age will be opposed to change – forgetting that a lot of those people were the ones campaigning against its introduction in the first place. We can’t afford to play stereotypes with this referendum.”

Nor, indeed, can we afford to be complacent. The removal of Maser’s mural – a beautiful image, with the campaign’s message emblazoned across a heart – from the wall of the Project Arts Centre in Dublin a few months ago came about as a result of just 50 or so complaints – even though these were vastly outnumbered by messages of support.

“There are moments that galvanise a movement,” Project Arts Director Cian O’Brien reflected, speaking to Hot Press at the time. “I think that the ‘Maser Mural Week’, will be the week that galvanises the Repeal the 8th movement.”

Many of those who protested against the removal of the mural – superbly captured through the lens of HP photographer Natalia Marzec at the time – made the point that the movement was already galvanised and ready to go into full campaign mode. The fact that versions of the mural began to appear all over the country and online seemed to confirm as much.

Human rights groups have given additional objective weight to the Repeal cause. The fact that Ireland’s laws afford a foetus the same protection as a woman is rightly regarded as a travesty under international human rights law.

In March 2016, Amnesty International published the results of a poll on attitudes to abortion in Ireland, which showed that 87% support wider access to abortion and 72% support the decriminalisation of abortion. Meanwhile, 73% believe that the Government should hold a referendum to Repeal the 8th.

In June 2016, the United Nations Human Right Committee found Ireland’s ban on abortion to have subjected Amanda Mellet – a dual Irish and US citizen – who had been diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality, to “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.”

In a judgement that was deeply damning of the Irish state, it concluded that “The State party should amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy, including if necessary its Constitution, to ensure compliance with the Covenant, including effective, timely and accessible procedures for pregnancy termination in Ireland, and take measures to ensure that healthcare providers are in a position to supply full information on safe abortion services without fearing being subjected to criminal sanctions.” Lest we forget, even someone supplying an abortion pill in Ireland risks a 14 year jail sentence. Thus, while Ireland may not be one of the safest places to have a baby in the world, it is certainly one of the most draconian in its treatment of those who facilitate abortion.

Of course, we shouldn’t need a court or international organisation to tell us any of this. UK government figures show that 3,451 women from Ireland had abortion procedures in England and Wales last year; in the period 2010 – 2014, that number was 19,947. Add in those who travelled to other territories, as well as those who procured abortion pills online, and the numbers requiring terminations are far, far higher. On that basis alone, the only sensible, humane conclusion is that it is long past time for us, as a nation, to take responsibility for our crisis pregnancies, and for what happens to the Irish women of every age, creed, colour and ethnic background, who are affected by them.
And so we hope that the time for decision making is near at hand. “The theme for the March for Choice this year is ‘Rise and Repeal’,” Janet O’Sullivan explains, “because of the 1916 Rising and the Declaration which demanded equality. We picked it because those aspirations of equality, expressed in the Proclamation, haven’t come true for women in this country.”

But now is better than later. Calls for change – on grounds legal, medical, humanitarian, financial, and plenty more besides – simply cannot be ignored any longer. A country which proved its capacity to progress towards a greater sense of personal freedom and mutual respect last May in the Same Sex Marriage Referendum simply must be given an opportunity to do so again.

Anna Cosgrove truly believes that we are on the cusp of something momentous. “In previous years when I used to open up conversations about this with friends or people in college, they were very hesitant,” she says. “So when I saw people putting on the jumper, boldly saying they’re pro-choice, I was like ‘Whoa’. People are actually wearing arguments for abortion rights on their chests. I’m convinced. Ireland is ready to change.”