New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Right to Abortion -- can the movement match the opposition?

category national | rights, freedoms and repression | feature author Monday February 18, 2013 11:06author by Diarmuid Breatnach - Personal Capacity Report this post to the editors

The anti-abortion movement is well funded and militant -- the right to abortion movement will need to match them in militancy

featured image
Foreign media coverage of the reaction here

The anti-abortion movement was not cowed by the outcry over Savita's tragic death nor by the huge popular response marching in November. The Government plans legislation only to allow abortion when the woman's life is danger and the criteria for establishing that are not yet known. All opinion polls on the subject show a huge majority in favour of liberalisation of the laws -- a majority which is also rising over the years. The abortion rights movement has been publicly quiet for some time now while the opposition is loud and in public view. Can the movement for abortion rights summon the necessary militancy to achieve its objectives?



The tragic death of Savita Halappanavar, dying in an Irish hospital during a miscarriage after being refused an abortion, shocked the nation. It might have been thought that the outcry then, followed by the protest demonstration of at least 20,000 in November in Dublin, along with other protests in Ireland and abroad, would have put the anti-abortion movement on the back foot. On the contrary, they have been on the offensive since.

Almost immediately afterwards, a religious orders woman was photographed outside the Bank of Ireland building in central Dublin with a placard saying: “Must millions of unborn children be sacrificed to Satan for the death of one woman?” Of course she represents the extreme edge of the anti-abortion movement and Catholic church dogma does not say – nor ever did – that aborted foetuses go to “Satan”. But she does represent the militancy of the anti-abortion movement.

On January 19th this year, the well-funded anti-abortion movement mobilised up to 25,000, according to the Gardaí, to attend a rally in Dublin. The regular anti-abortion propaganda stalls continue outside the GPO in Dublin and in fact seem to be stepping up their level of activity, with a giant placard across the road outside Cleary’s and leafletters there too, while passers-by are approached by young women seeking signatures for an anti-choice petition.

On the other hand, apart from some well-attended conferences in the wake of Savita’s death and the setting up of some working groups, one hears little publicly from the pro-choice movement at the moment and their picket of the anti-abortion rally drew approximately 200. Apparently the activists, in the middle of work to set up the nationwide organisation Abortion Rights Campaign, were in two minds as to whether to picket it and only decided at the last minute to do so.

Recent opinion polls show that a spread of between 60% and 85% within the Irish state favour liberalising the abortion laws including, as a minimum, the right to abortion when the mother’s life is in danger (www.ifpa.ie/Hot-Topics/Abortion/Public-Opinion). Surely the time is now to capitalise on such poll results and before the memory of Savita’s tragic death fades too much? After all the X case controversy was in 1992 and what progress has been made since?

The most recent poll, that of the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI, published findings this week which indicate an even more favourable climate for the right to abortion. Those who are opposed to it under any circumstances are at 12%, a drop of 6% from a similar poll in 1997. But the numbers of those in favour of abortion when the woman’s life is in danger have more than doubled to 84%. And those who favour abortion if the woman’s health is at risk have shot up from 14% in 1997 to 70% now. In addition, 79% were in favour of abortion when the foetus would not be capable of survival outside the womb and 78% in cases of rape or incest. Also of interest was the number who thought it should be permitted when the woman judged it to be in her own interest 37% overall (40% of women and 34% of men). (www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0211/1224329906498.html)

Despite the apparently favourable climate among the general population, the Government has declared plans only to bring legislation to allow abortion when the woman’s life is in danger and we have not been told what criteria will be used for that determination.

Campaigning for the right to choose abortion would need to be imaginative and might well need to include acts of civil disobedience in order to shake the main political parties out of their complacency – or at least inertia. Apparently the Abortion Rights Campaign intends to seek funding to help maintain itself and one can’t help wondering whether the inevitable strings that come attached to funding might not restrain the campaign from necessary confrontations.

It would seem worthwhile also to bring the pro-choice battle to the Irish Republican movement, where the divisions are such that the issue is usually avoided. Some of the organisations have a policy of right to abortion where the life of the mother is endangered while others have steered away from the debate. Bringing the issue to the various organisations within the movement would strengthen the hands of those within who are in favour of liberalisation of the laws and would bring the pro-choice movement into engagement with a radical and often revolutionary constituency with which it usually fails to engage. In addition, the Republican movement traditionally draws strong support from the working class and that was one of the social groups in which the recent poll found lower support. One might argue that working class women have even greater need of access to abortion than their economically better-off sisters, with less easy access to abortion abroad and less access to childcare facilities also.

The Abortion Rights Campaign will fight for what is arguably at least as fundamental a gender equality right as was the vote for women, the right to control their own reproduction, and along the way win any improvements it can, such as the right to abortion when the woman’s life is in danger. That is very purpose of the internal organisational work in which its activists are currently engaged. Their ultimate purpose is to repeal the 8th Amendment to an Bunreacht, the Constitution of the Irish state, as well as to provide access to “free, safe and legal abortion” for all in Ireland. (www.facebook.com/abortionrightscampaign?fref=ts )

Meanwhile, it seems dangerous to leave the field of battle for ‘hearts and minds’ on the street to the anti-abortion movement. Surely the pro-choice movement can run its own information stalls in central Dublin and elsewhere, collect its own signatures and perhaps even picket the anti-abortionists? The anti-choice people have marched out to do battle in a sustained campaign against any right to abortion at all. Hopefully the pro-choice movement will meet them with at least the same militancy and determination.

Related Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0211/1224329906498.html

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   Confusing     Baby Brains    Fri Feb 15, 2013 03:10 
   Legalization is a matter of time, but is that enough?     Lewis    Sat Feb 23, 2013 20:20 
   ''pro-choice" is rather silly?     Bobby    Sun Feb 24, 2013 09:21 
   Men are entitled to an opinion.     Rational Ecologist.    Mon Feb 25, 2013 12:05 
   Unreal     Bobby    Wed Feb 27, 2013 13:45 
   Nonsense.     Rational Ecologist.    Wed Feb 27, 2013 14:10 
   stop bickering and get on with supporting women's rights in our society     fred    Thu Feb 28, 2013 21:49 
   To Rational     Bobby    Thu Feb 28, 2013 23:19 
   Apology to Bobby.     Rational Ecologist.    Fri Mar 01, 2013 09:50 
 10   organisational comments would be useful     Diarmuid Breatnach    Fri Mar 01, 2013 17:44 
 11   Know your rights     MandyDandy    Tue Mar 05, 2013 05:09 
 12   Patriarchy is real-can't you see it?     Rational Ecologist.    Tue Mar 05, 2013 09:50 
 13   sadly "MandyDandy" and his ilk seem to be winning...     fred    Wed Mar 06, 2013 01:41 


Number of comments per page
  
 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy