Outdated, absurd and degrading: time to change Northern Ireland’s abortion laws
Politicians in the Northern Ireland Assembly are failing women, shirking their responsibilities and failing to provide adequate medical care for women. The notion that holding political office allows one to dictate what women can do with their bodies is one that needs to be eradicated. Denying women the right to an abortion is not making the issue disappear and it is not solving it. Instead women have to access pills online via organisations such as Women Help Women or travel to other parts of the UK to access safe terminations. Women are forced to do these in secrecy as though it were a shameful act that they should hide, not a consequence of being denied their human rights.
In April 2016, a 21 year girl from Belfast, who induced an abortion after buying pills online as she could not afford to travel to the UK to have an abortion, was given an extended prison sentence. She is being punished for making the only decision she could in her situation. She is being punished for exercising control of her own body and taking a pill. This is sadly only one of many cases of the degradation and punishment of women here.
I recently saw a Facebook post that perfectly summed up the absurdness of the Northern Ireland abortion law. If you don’t want to donate blood, no one can force you to. If someone dies their organs cannot be used for life saving donations without their consent. Thus, women in Northern Ireland are being asked to accept less control over their body than we grant to dead bodies. This is unacceptable.
This year, I took an important step in fighting for abortion rights. I joined the only party in the Assembly that supports the full extension of the 1967 Abortion Act; the Green Party. I believe small acts like this will led to the watershed change that is needed. The growth of parties and organisations that pledge to fight for women’s rights will provide the change. Every single person that joins parties like the Green Party contributes to the change. This Thursday, the 5th of May, you have the chance to make the change and the chance to stand up and fight for women’s rights.
‘They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself’ – Andy Warhol. Make the change, vote Green.
*Please remember, if you are under 9 weeks pregnant and living in Northern Ireland, please visit Women on Web or Women Help Women for access to an Early Medical Abortion. If you are over 9 weeks pregnant, please visit Abortion Support Network for information on travelling to the UK for a termination.
I’d love to read a blog post explaining why Green parties are so strongly pro-choice. What connection is there between being Green and seeing abortion as a question of a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body? Superficially you might expect the opposite: Greens recognise the interdependence of living things on each other as the most important consideration, and see individual rights as being less fundamental than these holistic, ecological principles. And what clearer example could you imagine of interdependence of one living thing on another living thing than an unborn baby’s dependence on its mother? So I’d love to hear how people fit together their Green convictions and their pro-choice convictions. It’s not obvious that one follows from the other – at least, not obvious to me. Why is it that Greens, who of all the parties are the least obsessed with individual choice and the strongest opponents of neoliberalism (which is all about individual choice), are the strongest advocates of individual choice when it comes to abortion?
Have you read any posts on the topic? Or could you (or someone) write one?
Anyone…?