Yes
Abortion is a reality in Irish society. Despite an almost total ban and severe criminal penalties for women who decide to terminate their pregnancy here, at least 130,000 women have made that decision since 1980. The difference for Irish women is that the procedure is carried out in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Abortion is criminalised under Section 58 of the Offences against the Person Act, 1861. Under this Victorian legislation a woman who tries to terminate her pregnancy in Ireland could face life in prison.
The current ban on abortion is so extreme that women who are pregnant as a result of rape must suffer the further indignity of having to travel abroad should they decide to access abortion services.
It even means that women who may have very wanted pregnancies, but whose pregnancies have resulted in foetuses that are incapable of separate existence, must scurry like criminals to a foreign jurisdiction to end the pregnancy there, if that is the path they choose.
Since 1969, the Irish Family Planning Association has worked to reduce the incidence of unplanned and crisis pregnancies through the provision of health care at our clinics and our education programmes.
We provide family planning and contraceptive services, medical training for doctors and nurses, free post-abortion medical check-ups, education courses with parents and young people and distribute information leaflets and booklets.
We also work with women experiencing crisis pregnancy. Through the provision of free, professional counselling in a supportive and confidential environment we give women the space to discuss all options: parenting, adoption and abortion.
The IFPA provides non-directive counselling, which means that the counsellor has no opinion on what is best but is there to help and respect the woman’s decision whatever that is.
Through our services our staff witness how a woman's youth, lack of education or money, uncertain immigration status or other socio-economic factors, can dramatically diminish her ability to access abortion abroad.
For these reasons in the past number of years Irish police have found evidence of a return to illegal, unsafe abortion not observed in Ireland since the early 1950's.
Such illegal activity has been prevalent among an immigrant population that faces greater restrictions on travel and often lacks funds. Illegal abortion places women's health and lives at risk.
There is considerable impact on Irish women also.
Irish women tend to present later in UK abortion clinics leading to more health risks.
The fact that abortion is criminalised in Ireland discourages them from receiving follow-up care and it discourages them from disclosing their full health history to their doctors.
For many of our clients, it is not until they are faced with the crisis pregnancy of a loved one or experience it themselves, that they realise the impact of criminalising abortion.
They are surprised that doctors are reluctant to treat them if they have a medical condition for fear of harming the foetus even if this endangers their health.
Mostly women are shocked the current constitutional and criminal law provisions disproportionately favour the interest of an 'unborn' over the rights of pregnant women, thereby endangering women’s health and well-being.
In 1992 the Irish Supreme Court interpreted the law to allow abortion when the woman's life is endangered by continuation of pregnancy.
However, the Government has repeatedly neglected to offer implementing legislation or to propose a referendum to facilitate access to lifesaving abortion, leaving women’s lives and health at risk.
Our clients are also very surprised that abortion information is still not freely available. In this context false and misleading information about the medical impact of abortion is seldom addressed.
Rogue agencies and 'Pro-life Campaigners' often try to mislead about the risks abortion poses to women’s physical or emotional health.
The sole purpose of these rogue crisis pregnancy agencies is to prevent women from having abortions.
Women describe being harassed, bullied and given blatantly false information.
The latter includes untruths such that legal abortions are painful, life-threatening procedures that will leave them with long-term emotional, physical, and psychological damage. Furthermore they are often told that having an abortion will put them at higher risk for developing breast cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, infertility, and other serious medical conditions.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the World Health Organisation have refuted these claims and yet this unethical use of misinformation and scare tactics continues to take place in centres throughout the country.
Increasingly international human rights experts such as the Committee on the UN Convention on Discrimination Against Women, the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner and Amnesty International have been highlighting how extreme our abortion laws are and the danger they pose to women’s health and wellbeing.
We should not ignore this situation any longer.
Niall Behan, IFPA Chief Executive
Source: (full text) Dublin Informer, Ireland, 13 June 2008