"Why being pro-life abroad isn't the same as being pro-life in Ireland. - For my foreign friends.
The situation in Ireland is way beyond just you can't get an abortion. I mean ok, right, so you can't have an abortion... but...
Pregnant women have no right to consent or refuse any medical treatment. The medical staff don't even have to tell you what they are doing to you, let alone get permission. At the major end of this, Ireland has a 30% ceasarian section rate, 10% is considered normal, in the UK it's 11%... Are Irish women really constructed so very badly? Or is there something wrong with the system? The amount of women who have been traumatised by an unannounced internal examination is horrifying. As in, there was a hand inside them without consent, or even notification. Imagine that for a minute... anywhere else that's assault. Not in Ireland. It is literally written into HSE (the health service) policy that you don't have a right to consent/not consent. Seriously.
In Ireland a woman known as P died while in early pregnancy (17 weeks I believe). The hospital felt unable under the Irish law called 8th amendment, to allow her to even die. She was kept alive on machines, in spite of physical decomposition and the fact there was no evidence at all using a dead woman as an incubator could ever work. Her family were not only dragged through the High Court for her right to dignity in death, but her face had to be caked in make up by the nursing staff, to avoid further trauma to her young child/children, from the state she was in.
There's no abortion in Ireland if you, say, have a heart condition, or your spinal injuries mean pregnancy will cause a loss of your sight forever. You could be receiving treatment for cervical cancer when you become pregnant, that treatment will stop. It will stop because even though you are dying and need all the help you can get, the law forbids treating you with anything that might harm a foetus. Now you would think your life would be at least understood to be relevant... It isnt. I am not in any way exaggerating this- look up Sheila Hodgers death.
It's not just care in pregnancy. It's medical care in its entirety. So let's say you have a car crash, you need scans. If you say your last period was 10 days ago, even if you pass a pregnancy test, you're still running the risk of being denied. I mean like you would think there'd be some common sense right... none. Doesn't matter what bones you broke (I cracked a rib), or how much pain you are in, or if you are totally, entirely lesbian, or if you haven't seen action in months. You are secondary to the potential foetus. No scan.
Oh and if it only stopped there... the amount of women who have had trouble getting lithium for bi-polar, because the doctor opposite them is of the opinion, as is the law, that the actual woman sitting in the chair in front of him isn't as valid as the imagined offspring her body might one day host. I want to say I am not kidding... it's unbelievable to most non-Irish residents. It's totally true. Good luck guessing which doctor thinks of you as a patient and which thinks of you as a vessel. Even some of the Together For Yes organisers have been caught out by ranty-loon GPs who even in 2018, don't prescribe contraception (I swear I am literally not making this up).
What if it's not you that's ill. What if your baby is dying. What if they have all manner of major physical issues, like missing organs, incomplete skull/head, they won't survive the birth or they will and they will have a short, agonising little life... still no. Under Irish law you are forced to carry that pregnancy to term, no matter what that does to you, your family, or indeed the baby. Some Irish women have had to make the dread journey to British hospitals, for early delivery of loved but doomed pregnancies, to then be forced to bring their child's body home between bags of frozen peas in the boot of the car, or send the baby for a lonely cremation, to have the ashes shipped home after, like an online shopping delivery.
What about if you are miscarrying anyway but it's taking a week? What about if your baby has a heartbeat of just 4bpm not 170bpm, what if you are sick, tired, in pain, medically trained and aware you are going into septic shock. What if you need help urgently, to save your life, in the event of an impossible to save miscarriage... yeah, still no. That was how the young healthy dentist, Savita Halappanavar, died. Had she been given a termination, when she asked for it, with the entirely unsavable "missed miscarriage" she was having, she wouldn't be dead now. When and only when, she was dying and after hours of legal meetings, could the hospital put an end to the retained matter causing the sepsis. It was, as we all know, too late.
12 years old? Raped? Pregnant? Tough. That was only earlier this year. A little girl of 12 forced into exile. And her rapist? We don't know... but if he does ever get punished it will be 5-7 years. She and her parents, would face up to 14 years for procuring an abortion for her, if on Irish soil. Ever taken a pre-teen child through an airport? Imagine making that trip for that.
It's all very well and good if you have a passport and money... What if you don't? Look up Michelle Hartes death for that. Or if you are a suicidal asylum seeker pregnant after gang rape? Yeah you can look that up too... they forced her to term then forced her to have a c-section. I don't know if she survived beyond the birth, the baby was placed for adoption. I often wonder if she is ok, where is she, what happened to her.
So you are pro-life. You hate abortion, its icky and leaves you with a sense of wrongness... I hear you. I feel the same, to be fair... but arbitrary bans like Ireland and Malta (nowhere else in the western world) don't work. Irish women travel in their thousands. They order abortion pills online. Or if they can't, you don't want to know what I know about coathangers, bleach, alcohol, stairs and so on. The 8th amendment isn't saving lives, its ruining them. Your first consultation after you realise you need abortion should be with your GP or obstetrician... not with the local loan shark.
Irish medics under the current laws aren't even allowed to mention abortion. They can't give you your notes or a letter to take, they can't receive or make calls to the British, Dutch, or Spanish hospital that treat you. The message in Ireland is, don't talk about it, even if you are desperately sick.
You can theoretically get an abortion in Ireland if you are suicidal. In reality only 1 woman was granted that in 2016. You can theoretically get abortion (or just medical treatment which is risky for a foetus- like my own daughters epilepsy drugs) if there is a serious risk to your life. In reality that means you must be dying in that moment and furthermore, the hospital have to clear it with lawyers, which can take hours.
You can be pro-life if you like... but believe me, my foreign friend, if you were able to vote here you would be voting YES tomorrow, to repeal the law (the 8th amendment) which has caused misery to at least 200,000 Irish women, has killed an uncountable number and terrifies a good proportion of the rest. The 8th isn't a pro-life law, its religiously motivated barbarism. Misogyny on an industrial scale. It's oppression and suffering... and it's time is up."
Sarah Hannah MaGuire