To repeal or to retain

I would have voted YES.

My application for Irish citizenship will not be processed by the time of the referendum, so I will be unable to vote.  I should have applied for citizenship much earlier and I’m sorry I can’t vote.

I would have voted YES.

I would have voted YES to repeal the 8^th amendment, because I don’t believe that a woman should have to travel overseas to terminate a pregnancy or take an illegal, unregulated abortion pill without medical supervision at home, and risk 14 years in prison for doing so.

I would have voted YES because this current legislation is hypocritical in the most extraordinary of ways; and it makes everyone in this society complicit with this hypocrisy.  We all know women who have travelled, and we all know women who have bought the pills online.  Even if those women haven’t shared their stories directly with us, we know them.  Can we ignore them for much longer?

I would have voted YES, not because I “agree” with abortion or think that abortion is “good”, but because life can be strange and complicated and terrifying and odd.  Because it’s not about me, and what I believe or where my opinion is.  It’s about all the women in our society.  All of the women in our society.

I would have voted YES, because of the health care advice from the World Health Organisation, because the Migrants’ Rights Groups in Dublin are supporting it, because many doctors and lawyers are supporting it.

I would have voted YES, because the current legislation doesn’t prevent terminations of pregnancies.  The current legislation is unfit for purpose and doesn’t serve the society I live in.  The current legislation needs to be changed.

If the 8^th amendment is repealed I would welcome more education about sexuality in schools, with more access to contraception, including the morning after pill.  I would welcome a mature discussion about how to provide the best services and care to the many different types of women who have to face the most difficult decision a person will ever have to make.  But let’s repeal it first.  Then we can look at long-term health advice, counselling and interventions afterwards.

I would have voted YES.