In a moment when women globally are reclaiming their voice and power, Ireland faces a historic chance to overturn a law that hurts so many women. On May 25, the Irish people will decide whether to repeal the 8th amendment, which equates the life of a pregnant woman with that of an embryo or fetus and criminalizes abortion except if continuing a pregnancy would result in certain death.
Living in Ireland as a graduate student in my early 20s, I found Ireland’s harsh abortion ban paradoxical and out of sync with an Irish society so committed to social justice and compassion.
As a working class kid used to hustling my way into funding my studies — including receiving a George J. Mitchell scholarship in large part funded by the Irish government — I was struck by how my Irish classmates had similar stories of growing up with limited means or one generation removed from hardship.
I felt at ease in a society that valued humility and hard work. They shared my Catholic values of a preferential treatment for the poor. I was also struck by how many saw equal healthcare and education as a right. They demanded a government that looked out for the wellbeing of its citizens.
But I could not square this deep commitment to equality and justice with a law that took away a woman’s fundamental right to make her own ethical decisions about how, when and whether to have children. A law that forced women to find the money to travel abroad if they needed to terminate an unexpected pregnancy.
Today, many Irish citizens are asking themselves this question — can we continue to justify a law that has hurt so many? Indeed the 8th amendment carries a dark history. Over the past 35 years, a litany of tragic situations have brought into question the morality of this law, from the X case to that of Anne Lovett to the persecution of Joanne Hayes.
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