Time to stop brushing everything under the rug and start to locution at the reality of women’s lives.
A proposed amendment to ban spontaneous abortions from being carried issue in nonpublic clinics in northerly Ireland was rejected earliest this week by the blue Ireland Assembly.
The amendment would bring in do it wicked to access abortion anywhere other than a globe health clinic.
The bill’s defeat comes after o'er 100 people, mainly women, signed an make letter in which they revealed that they had either taken abortion-inducing drugs or helped someone to obtain some.
The proposed amendment was impersonate forward by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and mixer Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
It sought to ensure that abortions could that be performed by public health providers, thereby preventing private organisations such as the recently-opened Marie stop clinic in capital of Northern Ireland from providing the portion.
A Marie stop clinic opened in October 2012 and was met with resistance from anti-abortion activists, despite the fact that it operates only within Northern Ireland’s already existing – and dependant – legal framework.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK to which the Abortion affect of 1967 has non been extended.
Abortions atomic number 18 legal only where there is a fortune to the life or health of the mother, but there are no official guidelines for medical professionals, meaning that even those women who are entitled to access an abortion may encounter hindrance in obtaining one.
The open letter, which was sent to The Observer recently as a response to the changes proposed in the amendment, is now the subject of a police probe after the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) launched an investigation into its contents.
Those who signed the open letter run the venture of prosecution under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 and the Criminal nicety Act of 1945.
These statutes get at the procurement of an abortion, or the act of parcel someone to procure an abortion, a criminal offence with a potential penalty of life imprisonment.
The signatories say that they took the decision to go public with the letter in order to illustrate that abortion is a reality of life in Northern Ireland.
“In effect, the only reason for [the proposed amendment] was to try to close the Marie Stopes clinic,” says Goretti Horgan of Belfast-based confederation for Choice, which organised the letter.
“We felt it was incredibly hypocritical because we do our politicians and our prosecution service know about women taking the contraceptive pill illegally.
“We felt it was time to stop brushing everything under the carpet and start to look at the reality of women’s lives.”
The amendment was defeated after a petition of meet was submitted by members of Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party, and the Green Party.
This meant that the amendment had to obtain a cross-party majority in order to be passed.
When it failed to do so, it was defeated.
Anna Lo of the Alliance Party described the proposed changes as “manipulative” and said “MLAs should make decisions [based] on pragmatism, not on religious belief.”
Caitríona Ruane of Sinn Féin echoed her sentiments, saying “this amendment is about trying to close down the Marie Stopes clinic and as a result [limit] the opportunity for a char to exercise the option of a termination where her life is in danger.”
These developments throw into sharp relief the challenges still facing those seek an abortion in Northern Ireland.
It is perhaps easy to forget, because it is a part of the UK, that there are function available in England, Scotland and Wales which have not been extended to Northern Ireland.
Given the much-publicised attitude in the Republic of Ireland, which is only this year legislating for a twenty-year-old drive which finally recognised a right to abortion in limited circumstances, there is a tendency to forget that set ahead in women’s health rights needs to be made throughout the entire island and not just the south.
Unlike the Republic, there is no constitutional provision barring the introduction of abortion services in Northern Ireland.
There is, however, a similar culture of traditional, religion-driven foeman to abortion which has meant that any attempts to extend the 1967 Act have been challenged by both politicians and anti-choice groups.
In 2009, for instance, Northern Ireland’s Department of Health, Social work and Public Safety (DHSSPS) were forced to with pee draft guidelines which had been active for medical professionals providing abortions because of a legal challenge by an anti-choice organisation.
Only lead month, and following eleven years of legal action by the Family Planning Association, did the DHSSPS finally agree to produce new guidelines.
The actions of the open letter’s signatories speak to an escalating belief that abortion constabulary in Northern Ireland should be liberalised.
A November 2012 poll by the Belfast Telegraph indicated that 45 per cent of people felt the up-to-the-minute law should be liberalised.
There is currently no provision for women who have become pregnant from rape or incest, and women who travel from Northern Ireland to the UK for an abortion are not entitled to an abortion on the NHS.
The financial and mental strain caused by these difficulties mean umteen women turn to buying abortion pills over the internet, and it is this untenable situation to which Alliance for Choice and its fellow campaign groups wish to draw attention.
“We just felt that desperate measures were needed to make women’s voices heard,” says Horgan.
“Our aim is to make abortion available, free, on the health service in Northern Ireland.
“That probably means extending the 1967 Abortion Act but we’d be happy with whatever build of law that would allow women to control their own bodies.”
Materials taken from Womens Views on News
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