Ireland must remove the shackles from its women (vote on abortion ban 25 may)
(and I am STILL waiting for the rcc's apology to women about the Magdalene Laundries)
Ireland must remove the shackles from its women
By Una Mullally
(video at link)
Traveling abroad to get an abortion
"Una Mullally is a journalist, author and screenwriter from Dublin. She is a columnist with the Irish Times and contributes to the Guardian. The opinions in this article belong to the author. "
(CNN)This week, 47 years ago, a group of Irish feminists boarded what became known as the Contraceptive Train -- a train to and from Belfast so they could buy condoms, take them back to Dublin and goad the police to arrest them. The protest against the illegality of contraceptives was a landmark moment in Irish society, a perspective that could not be unseen and a point of view that shifted public discourse. The women's movement in Ireland has fought many battles: from the glorious stunt of that train journey to the divorce referendum in 1995. But 2018 presents the greatest challenge yet: will the Irish people remove the eighth amendment from the constitution -- a ban on abortion introduced in 1983 -- by referendum on May 25?
'Irish abortions happen; they just don't happen on Irish soil' If the past is a different country for most nations, in Ireland, it's a different continent. The social change that has occurred here since the 1990s -- when the scale of the sexual abuse of children by members of the Catholic Church began to be revealed -- is profound. Marriage equality was legalized by popular vote in 2015, and Ireland has some of the most progressive legislation on transgender rights in the world. Yet legal abortion has been the third rail of Irish politics for so long.
How can a country legalize gay marriage but not abortion? How can Irish people say the Catholic Church has lost its moral authority and power while Irish women still can't access basic health care? The answer lies in a complex legacy of control and oppression of women that is as off-putting to many Irish women as it is to their global sisters. In the aftermath of the marriage referendum, the country seized a progressive energy, and a newly politicized generation began to challenge something that 35 years of activism failed to dismantle.
. . . .
The vote will be tight. But the resolve to remove the eighth amendment is strong.
In the face of a No campaign that has been emotive to the point of hysterical -- graphic posters shock tourists in the capital -- the Yes campaign has taken on a steely resilience.
With just days to go, a profound change may be about to happen. But more profound will be what that change is actually reflecting: a modern country that seeks to remove shackles that have bound it -- and its women -- for far too long.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/23/opinions/ireland-2018-abortion-referendum-opinion-intl/index.html