Tag Archives: prochoice

Activism and Agitation

Launch of Roscommon For Yes!

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I hopped on the bus down to Strokestown for the launch of Roscommon Together For Yes, it’s one I have done a few times to Strokestown it’s not even a 3 hour trip which is always nice to sit and read and relax for.

I was still invited down to attend the launch and to meet the members of Roscommon Together For Yes, who had been Ros for Choice part of the Abortion Rights Campaign region groups before they re branded for the referendum.

I meet up with them in the bar of the Percy French Hotel were the event was on later. We chatted about posters, the campaign, how they hoped the launch would mean more people would sign up to canvass, about when posters would be up and the add they placed in the local paper about the event. They were delighted to find out I have been a frequent visitor to Strokestown.

There were  exhibitions in the room as well, one was this amazing display of 20 shoes, one for every person we know traveled to the UK to have an abortion in 2016.

And the amazing http://everydaystories.org/  

Which was set up by an amazing Rocommon native who also founded Voices for Choice Choir.

Everyday stories is an exhibition which is currently traveling and if any group wants to host it please get in touch with them. There is also a discussion workshop which can be sent out to people to run.

Story Events

Requirements

  • Any groups or individuals may host an event.  Workshops have been held in cafés, pubs and living rooms – whatever space you feel comfortable in.
  • A phone + internet / mp3 player is required to play the audio. A speaker is recommended if your group is larger than 4 people.

Please get in touch if you would like to host an event.

 

The speakers at the Roscommon Together For Yes were wonderful.

The Minsters Speech was powerful, I still get very moved when TDs and Minsters speak about the Harm the 8th Amendment causes and how we need to remove it for compassionate healthcare here in Ireland. It is so wonderful that so many of them are on board and echoing what we have been saying for the last 6 or so years.

Nurse Polly spoke about how she can not do her job and how legally there are things which she can do to a pregnant person while they are giving birth with out their consent that in any other context would be assault and how this has to change and how she wants to be able to care for all her patients.

Tracey from Terminations for Medical Reasons spoke about being are parent with 3 children already who had deal with a fourth pregnancy which ended tragically after a diagnosis of a Fatal Featal abnormality.  How she and her husband had thought naively after the diagnosis was confirmed that she would be induced here at home.

Instead she has to take on trying to get an appointment in Liverpool women’s hospital and make all the travel arrangements which took weeks, all the while people were asking the types of questions they do, about when are you due, are you hoping for a boy or a girl, are your other kids excited to get a new baby.

She spoke of the compassion, dignity and care she experienced there and how that was lacking here due to the 8th amendment.

The we hear from Dr Mark Murphy who explained what a medical abortion with pills is like, how drs and all medical staff will be able to opt out of providing abortion services same as they do with contraceptive services using the conscience clause.

That no form of contraceptive is 100% and even when people are doing all they should do, unplanned pregnancies can still happen, drs deal with this everyday and most of the people who have an abortion are already parents.

The Roscommon Together For Yes were amazing and live tweeted the meeting you can read it on thier account if you want to know more. https://twitter.com/RosForChoice

I want to give a special thanks to Nurse Polly stepped up to be a speaker at the launch when I had to step down. I have no doubt we will be sharing a platform soon at other meetings around the country.

The Welcome I got in Roscommon was wonderful and if there is time over the next 5 weeks I will absolutely be back, maybe to do something in the north of the county.

 

Again thanks to all those who supported my gofundme which made this possible.

Activism and Agitation, The Wanton Witch

Strokestown, abortion stigma and me.

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Novemember 2012, nearly 6 years ago, was the first time  I came to stay in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon. I had passed through it before on the bus out to stay with friends in Balllina. I know I am that strange Dublin person who actually travels outside of the Pale.

My friend Lora O’Brien had asked me to come and be a speaker at a two day Goddess conference in the Visitor centre in Tlusk. where she was the manager.  I had agreed to do this before the death of Savita had broken and that Saturday I was in Strokestown and not attending one of the vigils and Marches which sprung up all over the country. I knew how many there were as I was at the time the sole admin for the Irish Choice Networks website and I kept updating the list there and on the ICN facebook page.

I kept my speaking commitment and on the way down in the car I got talking with friends about abortion and about what had happened to Savita, about the law here and about the restrictions the 8th Amendment put in place.

When we arrive into Lora’s the conversation continued after she had welcomed us and made us tea. She said that she didn’t think things were going to change as abortion wasn’t really such a common thing, as sure none of her friends had had an abortion.

I looked at her and smiled and said “Hi I am one of your friends and I have had an abortion”. That was the first of many, many conversations I was to have with friends over the coming months. While the vast majority of my friends knew I was very prochoice, I still hadn’t disclosed that I myself had travelled.

From November through to the end of January 2013 I told more of my friends, I had those conversations. I am blessed they were so supportive, and so at the meeting at which the name of the Abortion Rights Campaign was announced, I publically stated for the first time in person to a room of mostly strangers that “I had an abortion”.

This all started in Strokestown, which I came back to visit frequently, even spending summer holidays here with my children and celebrating Winter solstice and Summer solstice with friends and family.

And here I am again in Strokestown, today as Roscommon For Yes launches as we finally have a referendum to Repeal the 8th Amendment. When I said I would travel to as many counties as possible I contacted a range of groups and let the schedule evolve as it would. And so the first place I find myself invited to is Strokestown.

Its funny but for me personally not surprising as this place is for me connected with the Goddess I have the deepest connection with that of the Great Queen also know as An Mór-Ríoghain or The Morrigan.

The Warrior Queen, the Battle Crow, the Goddess of Sovereignty. And that is what we have been fighting for the rights of sovereignty over our own bodies. The last few years haven’t been easy, hell the last few months have not been easy, but I know She has had my back. So I am happy to make this pilgrimage here. 

I have always smiled when some have called me the Witch involved with the abortion rights campaign, yes I am a pagan, I have never hidden it. I spoke about it on the @Ireland account at the start of the week when I was a curator, Lora did too.

There are as many pagans in Ireland as there are Jewish people according to the last census, we are people just like everyone else, who’s spiritual life, helps us through the hard time and helps us celebrate the good times.

So I am delighted and honoured to be here in Strokestown today.

Aisghair Abú

 

 

Thank you to those who donated to my Fundme who made this trip and blog post possible.

 

Activism and Agitation

Together for Yes poster campaign launches!

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You can donate here!

https://togetherforyes.causevox.com

 

Already between me filming this and posting it, the amount raised has gone from 130,000 to 150,000!

This is how Together For Yes  will raise the money which will be spent on the campaign, from prochoice people all over Ireland.  We have been waiting a long time for this to happen, it’s been over 5 years from when the Abortion Rights Campaign was founded, to bring about a referendum and it’s members from all over the country have been working and preparing.

More blog posts to come soon, still feck that’s the fund raiser today and the restoration of the Maser Mural yesterday which have had me crying, but they are happy tears! No doubt more will be shed between now and the 25th of May!

 

Activism and Agitation

When will the #Repealthe8th Referendum be?

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Right now we are in a weird place re the upcoming referendum. We are waiting for the Gov to announce the wording and the date for the referendum. Once that happens there is a whole process that kicks off.

There hadn’t been an official date announced yet, a possible one has of the 25th of May.

But right now there is a court case in progress in our Supreme Court which is in relation to the 8th amendment. The Supreme Court case that needs to be resolved before the Eighth Amendment referendum

Until the Supreme Court rules, the Gov can not decide the wording of the referendum and can’t announce a date. We are in a holding pattern, so we are seeing media outlets who know there is much interest in with nothing ‘new’ to report. So we get pieces full of speculation. I know people are getting restless wanting to get a move on, but the Gov has to wait on the Supreme Court. And no the Gov can’t hurry along the courts, that would be a serious breach in separation of powers.

Frustrated with what you are seeing from media outlets I suggest you read instead. https://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/2018/02/01/explainer-government-calls-for-repeal-and-new-provision-to-legislate-for-abortion/

Also maybe don’t share daft pieces which aren’t helpful, written to have ‘something” about on a media outlet. Why not share one of these instead

5 Facts About Abortion in Ireland

8 Myths, Busted!

8 Reasons to Repeal the 8th Amendment

They Say, We Say

A Brief History of Abortion in Ireland

Abortion FAQs

Or share this https://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/2018/02/01/making-sure-you-can-vote/

I’m frustrated too, with waiting for the Supreme Court, but I am going to keep on talking to people about #repealthe8th And how if we want to have any change to bring about to compassionate healthcare at home in Ireland in line with human rights & best medical practice then we need to .

In the meantime groups are organising all over the country, get involved https://www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/get-involved/

 

Activism and Agitation

Gloria Steinem and #repealthe8th

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I was delighted to see images on my twitter feed of Gloria Steinem posing beside the Repeal Projects jumpers and the AimsIreland T shirts.

https://twitter.com/Harmonica26/status/756831226682568705

But I wasn’t one bit surprised. Ms Steinem was one of the Founders and Editors of Ms Magazine and it’s debut issue in December 1972 featured 52 women stating “We Had an Abortion”

This action followed on from the French & German Actions of June that year: the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur Published the Manefestio which was orchestrated by Simone de Beauvoir and was sign by 343 women and the Stern Magazine cover is wonderful and 70 women came out about having had an abortion.

VOE STERN 24/1971 BS 1 Titel Titelseite Wir haben abgetrieben Abtreibung 1971_24 Schlagworte:Zeitschrift, Presse
VOE STERN 24/1971 BS 1 Titel Titelseite Wir haben
abgetrieben Abtreibung 1971_24 Schlagworte:Zeitschrift, Presse

All these actions happened before I was even born, but I knew that if women in Ireland are to have the right to an abortion when we need one, then just like the women in France, Germany and the USA some of us were going to have to go public with our stories. Which is why I chose to start telling my story, which by a quirk of fate was also published in Le Nouvel Observateur

But I was just one person back in 2013 but soon other women started stepping forward, and when I was asked to take part in the X-ile Project it was something I could not refuse.

Women in Ireland have started to come forward to ‘come out’ (as Panti Bliss recently put it) about their abortions, we have done so follow the footsteps of many other brave women, and Gloria Steniem is one of those women. She has shared her story about having to get an illegal abortion.

So I will be keeping an eye out for Gloria Stenism on the Women’s Podcast, I am looking forward to what she has to say about #repealthe8th, I don’t doubt she agrees that we need Free Safe Legal and local abortion services in Ireland.