blue-hawkeye:

dirtgrvb:

in 10 days ireland is having a referendum to hopefully repeal the 8th amendment, which equates the life of a foetus to that of an adult

abortion is currently 100% illegal in ireland with a penelty of up to 14yrs (rape is 7yrs, if even that) and up to 10 people travel to england to access abortion every single day

if you’re irish, remember go to vote Yes on May 25th. if you’re not irish but have irish friends, remind them to go vote Yes

(rb if ya can)

Get out and vote!  The 25th amendment (to remove the threat to life by suicide as grounds for an abortion) was defeated by 50.42% in 2002.  It was defeated by less than 10,000 votes.  Every.  Vote.  Counts.  Do not assume this will pass. Do not get complacent.  We NEED your vote.

Polls are open from 7am until 10pm.  If you are working during those hours, employers are legally obligated to allow you time off to vote.
Don’t know if you’re registered to vote? https://www.checktheregister.ie
Better yet, call your local County Council: http://www.housing.gov.ie/local-government/administration/local-authorities/local-authorities

Vote Yes for Savita.  Vote Yes for Michelle.  Vote Yes for Siobhán.  Vote Yes for Miss X, Miss Y, Miss A, Miss B, Miss C, Miss D, Miss P.  Vote Yes for all the families of TFMR.  

Vote Yes for the women with cancer who are less than 12 weeks pregnant who have to wait to receive chemotherapy, allowing their cancer to progress.

Vote Yes for the women who are brought to court for invoking their right to refuse consent to certain medical procedures while pregnant.

Vote Yes for the 9 women each day who travel to England to receive healthcare Ireland will not provide for them.  

Vote Yes for the 3 women each day who take an illegal abortion pill in Ireland, and do not consult their doctor because they can face up to 14 years in prison for having taken said pill.

Vote Yes for the couples who terminated their much wanted children with FFAs in England, and who could not bring the remains home for a funeral because of regulations.

Please, Vote Yes.

We cannot legislate for abortion in any case other than threat to life without a Yes vote.  The Attorney General has ruled on this on two separate occasions.  The National Institute for Obstetrics & Gynaecology is endorsing a Yes vote.  81% of Irish Obstetricians endorse a Yes vote.

We are not voting on any law for abortion, or any specific regulations thereof.  We are voting on whether to replace Article 40.3.3 with the following text: 

Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancies.

Nowhere else in our constitution do we explicitly make something a criminal act, and then explicitly protect the right to be informed about how to perform that act in other jurisdictions, and explicitly protect the right to travel to another jurisdiction to carry out that act.

In September 2012 I marched with a poster that said “Abortion saves womens’ lives”.  In November 2012 we learned that Savita Halappanavar was denied an abortion while miscarrying and subsequently passed away.  The government had nearly 29 years to legislate for the circumstances in which abortion was legal under the 8th amendment.  They didn’t do it until after Savita’s death, until after we took to the streets and sat outside the Dáil and demanded ‘Never Again’.  Opponents to Repeal have had 35 years to propose an alternative to the 8th amendment; they never have.

We will not be asked a more “moderate” question.  We will not be asked this question again for another generation, at the very least.

REPEAL THE 8TH

VOTE YES ON MAY 25TH