11 Citizens’ Assembly submissions to help you to write your own
THE IRISH GOVERNMENT IS CURRENTLY CONVENING A CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY TO DISCUSS THE 8TH AMENDMENT TO THE IRISH CONSTITUTION.
THEIR CONCLUSIONS WILL FORM THE BASIS OF A NUMBER OF REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS THAT WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THE HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS FOR FURTHER DEBATE BY OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES.
THE CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY ARE GIVING THE GENERAL PUBLIC AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THEIR VOICES TO BE HEARD THROUGH THE CALL FOR EVIDENCE.
THIS PROCESS ALLOWS ALL PEOPLE IN IRELAND (WITH OR WITHOUT A VOTE) AND IRISH DIASPORA TO HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD. THE CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY SPECIFICALLY CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS FROM THOSE LIVING OVERSEAS TO HAVE AN INPUT INTO THE PROCESS.
WE ENCOURAGE ALL CONCERNED PARTIES AND MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC (WHETHER YOU HAVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF AN ABORTION OR NOT) TO MAKE A SUBMISSION ONLINE; SUBMISSIONS CAN BE LONG OR SHORT.
Below are some submissions from organisations and members of the public.
Make your submission here: http://www.citizensassembly.ie/en/Submissions/
Submission 1 — anonymous
I am not an activist, or at least I wasn’t, but my life has been turned upside down over the last couple of weeks, and while I do not revel in the idea of my life being in the public eye, I also feel it needs to be known. And I guess I’m just pissed off. Pissed off at being in a country that makes me feel ashamed while making the hardest decision of my life.
On Wednesday I travelled to Liverpool to terminate my 14 week pregnancy. This was not a baby I didn’t want, he was very much wanted. I had already imagined him and Oscar being best buddies, and excited to see how they got on, and what Oscar made of this new little person.
Read the full submission here
Submission 2— Ciara, midwife
Hi,
My name is Ciara. I am from Tyrone but I live in London. I am a qualified as a midwife and I work for an abortion provider.
I’m fortunate enough to have never been faced with the decision to end a pregnancy. But even if I did, by the good fortune of where I live, I have a choice.
I do not have a story tell but I have many. I am responsible for providing care for the girls and women who take the flight to the UK to end a pregnancy.
I hold the hands of the frightened and stunned, the women who find themselves in a foreign city with foreign accents, filled with the yearning of wanting to be at home and safe.
I hug the Irish girls who have never had a passport before, never left their small rural town before and are all alone because they had nowhere to turn in their own country.
I have discharged the sophisticated business woman who flew to England in a day to end a pregnancy that was the result of a bad relationship.
I have watched these brave women walk away from my clinic, knowing they have lied when they said they have a responsible adult to care for them when they leave but having to accept their word because they have a flight to catch and can’t afford an overnight stay.
I have administered pills to women, knowing that within 20 minutes there may be an effect and she will start to bleed and cramp as the pregnancy passes. Wondering will she have anyone to hold her hand? Or will she be curled up in an airport toilet with no privacy and dignity in this most vulnerable time in her life? Will other passengers stare? In sympathy or judgement? Will she be ok?
I have pleaded with these women to get some counselling and help when they get home when I know there is no help for them when they get there.
I come home from work every day and I think of them. My sisters. Your sisters. Did I do enough to make it easier? Did they know that I genuinely cared? I hope there is a modicum of comfort to be taken from that before they return to an Ireland that doesn’t want to know about it, wants them to keep their secrets as if it is a personal shame. It isn’t.
I don’t ask them why they are here. I do not ask them to prove their worthiness to end a pregnancy. Nor should you.
Abortion is not easy, so for our sisters, our daughters, our cousins, our friends, repeal the 8th and show some humanity.
Ciara
Submission 3— Ciara McHugh
I’m an Irish citizen. My fiancé is also an Irish citizen.
We live in London and we can’t come home.
We can’t come home because I’m too afraid to live in a country with the 8th amendment.
2 weeks after my 30th birthday I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The Doctors found a tumour in my chest. It measured 10cm x 8 cm x 6cm. Imagine something that size growing inside your body. Literally crushing your heart. They showed me the scan and that’s what was happening. I was days or weeks away from a cardiac arrest that I wouldn’t have survived.
I had just turned 30. We were in love. We wanted to get married. We wanted a family. We wanted to do it in Ireland.
I had chemotherapy. I lost my hair. I lost everything that made me me. Everything. Then I had radiotherapy.
Then I survived.
We are still in love. We are going to get married. Maybe someday we’ll have a family.
6 months after I finished my treatment I got pregnant. I struggled to cope mentally because the hyperemesis brought me right back to the year before when I was so sick that I was dying.
I lost the baby.
It’s a sad story isn’t it?
We can’t come home. Because what if the cancer comes back? What if it comes back and I get pregnant again? I live in London, there is no choice to be made. We could terminate to safe my life and go through the hellish treatment once more and then rebuild.
We want to go home. But we can’t. Because if the cancer comes back and I get pregnant and we live in Ireland then I don’t get to live do I? It would be a race of time- which grows faster- the mass of cells in my uterus or the mass of cells crushing my heart slowly killing me.
Over here there is no choice. My mother has already buried two daughters, I’m all she has left and while I’m here I’m safe. I’m far away and I miss her. But I’m safe. In a foreign country. Safe.
If we move to Ireland I’m not. I’m in danger because our country says the cells in my uterus are equal to me.
If I was your daughter or if your daughter was me- would you agree with them?
Ciara McHugh
Submission 4— Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment
Article 40.3.3, usually referred to as the Eighth Amendment, was inserted into the Irish Constitution following a referendum in 1983. It effectively equates the life of a pregnant woman1 with that of an embryo or foetus; thereby creating an unworkable and dangerous distinction between the life of a pregnant woman and her health.
Read the full submission here
Submission 5— Church of Ireland
Submission 6— Brian Leonard
So, we see that Irish abortions do take place. They take place every day, but in secret, either abroad or in the bedrooms of Ireland. Article 40.3.3 does not prevent any of them, it makes them happen later, and stigmatises those who have them. It is also worth noting that the Irish people voted to retain the right to travel for abortion in the referendum on the 13th amendment.
What do I think should replace the 8th amendment? My answer is simple: nothing. This is far too complex a matter to be regulated through such a blunt instrument as the constitution. I have also tried to formulate “time limits” for abortion in different circumstances. The truth is, I cannot. I believe that our legislators should have the competence and bravery to facilitate doctors in the practice of their duties. That means, they should legislate to allow doctors, with their patients, decide what is best in each circumstance. This should be done with the best medical practice in mind, not clumsy legislative instruments.
Many will say that this will lead to “abortion on demand, up to birth”. This is scare mongering. Nobody truly believes that women decide in late pregnancy to terminate pregnancies for anything other than medical reasons. The truth is, that those using this argument do not want to permit abortion in any circumstance and have an inherent distrust for women.
Read the full submission here
Submission 7— Alan Gibson
This is a simple matter of democracy.
For more than the past decade opinion polls have consistently shown an overwhelming majority in favour of significant liberalisation of access to abortion facilities in this state. (see below)
The opinion polls vary in regards to the exact details of the degree of liberalisation being polled about but what they all have in common is that for any of them to become reality it would require the repeal of the 8th Amendment to allow for subsequent changes in the law.
Read the full submission here
Submission 8— Niamh Ni Ghabhann
Submission 9 — Ciara Greene
For the citizens assembly,
I have read your call for evidence for the citizens’ assembly on the 8th amendment. I have serious concerns relating to the restrictions and results of those restrictions due to the 8th amendment on the people of Ireland.
I think the 8th amendment should be repealed for the following reasons:
- Women should have a right to choose to have a baby or terminate a pregnancy, without having to travel abroad
- Women in cases of rape should have every option available to them
- All people deserve bodily autonomy
- Women should not be forced to carry pregnancies to term in cases of fatal foetal abnormality
- Women should never be denied lifesaving medicines and treatments because they cannot access an abortion
- People in Ireland should have both access to the medical procedures they need and the aftercare they need, in Ireland
- Abortion should not only be available to wealthy women, who can afford to travel or pay for an expensive procedure, but to all womenNone of the above points can be achieved until the 8th Amendment is taken out of our constitution and women have the rights and autonomy they deserve as equal citizens of Ireland.
We need to put an end to the horror stories: a women losing her life because she was denied a potentially lifesaving abortion, a brain-dead women artificially being kept alive against the wishes of her family because she was pregnant, a suicidal teenage rape survivor forced to carry a pregnancy to term and then have a C-section while she was on hunger strike. The stories less covered by the news are of the nine women on average who travel to the UK from Ireland every day to seek an abortion at an enormous financial cost, unnecessary difficulty and strain, and with no follow up care.
When think about the women who are forced to travel abroad for an abortion, I picture 9 women a day, 63 women a week, I feel sad and ashamed of my country. 3,285 women who travel over the course of a year (although this is probably below the actual figure) is too many people for me to imagine in my mind’s eye. These women travel for a myriad of reasons, all of them relevant. I want to live in a country that cares for the needs of all its citizens and does not turn its back on people in need.
Please vote to repeal the 8th amendment.
Ciara Greene
Submission 10 — Repeal the 8th London
Our first gathering was in the form of a performance protest outside the Irish Embassy in London to coincide with the Dublin “March for Choice” on the 24th September 2016 as part of “Repeal the 8th — A Global Gathering”. 77 women participated in the London protest to represent the 77 Irish women a week (11 a day) who have travelled to the UK for abortions (see the video here: https://goo.gl/gdSHHG). Hundreds of Irish people gathered at the Irish Embassy to stand in solidarity with the women who travel from Ireland to England to access abortion and to call for the repeal of the 8th Amendment.
On the 8th November 2016, we had our first meeting as “Repeal the 8th London” and we exceeded our own expectations with an attendance of over 250 people.
We are now making this submission to you today as a group 600 members strong.
Our group is made up the Irish diaspora in London and people with close ties to Ireland, who strongly believe that the 8th Amendment needs to be removed from the Irish constitution. We care about our country and we care about women and children in our country.
Read the full submission here
Submission 11 — Roisin
Thank you for considering this very important and personal topic. I would like to submit my story. I had an abortion in London 15 years ago. I won’t go in to details of the why because I do not feel that the reasons why I did what I did are important now, nor is it something for public record. However, I remember the stress over the cost and need to travel by myself. If I had been able to discuss all my options with an Irish GP who had the freedom to fully talk openly with me, maybe I wouldn’t have felt the decision to be so black and white. Bringing the child up in to the situation I was in was not an option for me, however I felt then I only had the one option — travel and get an abortion. Please do not think I now regret my decision, as I don’t, however I do wonder what would have happened if I had not felt like going to a Marie Stopes clinic was the only way I could discuss my options openly. I have and always will be of the opinion that a. women of means will travel regardless of the law and therefore Ireland is turning it’s back on it’s citizens, forcing them to sort out their situation by themselves, b. the only people who benefit from this law are Ryanair and Irish Ferry, and c. whether you believe it to be right or wrong, women are traveling and those who can’t afford to are taking drastic actions to try and self-abort. Either Irish women are full citizens, allowed to feel confident that the State is there to support them or they are not. I hope this situation will change and Ireland will put aside the moral quandary it is in, and realise the situation is far from right or wrong, it is about supporting Irish women in making these difficult decisions.
