(kinda shitty post, but the heat melts my brain and I wanted to write something)
Last night, after a 21 year long wait, X-case legislation
was passed in the Dáil at 127 to 31. However, it’s not law yet – it still has
to go through the Seanad and the President’s office. While this is a momentous
occasion in Irish history, and a step in the right direction for women*’s
reproductive freedom, it is not without its issues.
The legislation brings clarity to doctors – a pregnant
person can now undergo any treatment to save their life, even if that treatment
will result in a miscarriage or involves ending the pregnancy. It takes one
doctor to decide if the woman* is literally at death’s door, and two if she’s
only a little bit dying. However, to force a woman* who is suicidal as a result
of her pregnancy to plead for her life in front of a panel of doctors (one of
which has to be an OB despite the fact that it’s a mental health issue, not a
pre-natal issue) is cruel. If they do not unanimously agree, she must go to
another panel, and they could take 5 to 7 days to come to a decision. They
could take a week to decide whether or not to help, when a person contemplates
suicide waiting for their verdict.
Mental health is real health, and this is something the
legislators seem to not fully understand. If someone has gotten to the point
where they would subject themselves to this kind of backwards and patronising
system because their pregnancy is not something they can handle, they need
help. They don’t need to be submitted to this trial where they are not even
certain that the outcome will be to save their life and end the pregnancy. This
legislation will do nothing for people who are suicidal as a result of their
pregnancies. However, some women* may go through this panel. These are the
women* who are too poor to travel for a termination and migrant women* who are
unsure of their immigration status. These are some of our most vulnerable
women, yet we will subject them to this cruel, humiliating process to beg for
their lives.
The legislation also contains a jail sentence for those who
terminate in Ireland, or those who help them terminate in Ireland. Under the
1861 Offences Against the Persons Act, which made abortion completely illegal
in Ireland, this crime warrants life of penal servitude. In the new legislation
this has become an undisclosed fine and up to 14 years imprisonment. No one has
ever been prosecuted for self-inducing in Ireland under the old legislation,
and we have been assured that this will continue with the new legislation. Why
then, was it included at all? Why even make the threat to criminalise women who
self-induce with pills in their own country? Why add to the stigma surrounding
abortion? While this threat may only apply to doctors who perform abortions
‘illegally’ (i.e. when the pregnant person is not actually dying), there is a
worry that it could also be used to prosecute those who provide abortifants, or
collect them from the North, as they are supplying the means to carry out an
abortion. Whether anyone is ever prosecuted for self-inducing, only time will
tell.
This is the bare minimum. This basically tells Irish women* - 'if you're pregnant, and will die if you remain pregnant, we'll end your pregnancy'. It isn't bringing in abortion on request, and it also isn't abortion up to 9 months. After the point of viability, if the pregnancy needs to be ended to save the life of the pregnant person, a c-section or early induced delivery will be performed, not an abortion. While that seems painfully obvious, the anti-choice crowd have been using that as a means by which to 'kill the bill'. They would rather women* die than have a termination. That's not 'pro-life'.
This is the bare minimum. This basically tells Irish women* - 'if you're pregnant, and will die if you remain pregnant, we'll end your pregnancy'. It isn't bringing in abortion on request, and it also isn't abortion up to 9 months. After the point of viability, if the pregnancy needs to be ended to save the life of the pregnant person, a c-section or early induced delivery will be performed, not an abortion. While that seems painfully obvious, the anti-choice crowd have been using that as a means by which to 'kill the bill'. They would rather women* die than have a termination. That's not 'pro-life'.
Various amendments to the bill were proposed while it was
being debated in the Dáil over the last few days. All amendments to broaden the
bill were defeated. Terminations in cases of rape or incest were defeated
because they don’t fit into the tiny box that is the Supreme Court
interpretation of the law – that terminations are only allowed when there is a
real and substantial risk to the woman*’s life, including through suicide.
Interestingly enough, though not surprising, amendments trying to remove the
suicide claus from the bill were also tabled. One has to wonder how the government
could legislate for X (as we are required to do by the European Court of Human
Rights), if we leave out suicide. The X-case is the reason the interpretation
included suicide as a real and substantial risk to the woman*’s life. We have
two referenda (1992 and 2002) where the people could have opted to remove ‘in
case of suicide’ from the law; we chose not to.
Terminations for medical reasons, when the fetus has a fatal
abnormality and will not survive outside the womb, were also left out, despite
the argument that the fetus will never live outside the womb, and so their
right to life cannot be seen as the same as the right to life of the pregnant
person. These are generally much wanted pregnancies, and yet we export these
grieving families to the UK and elsewhere if they chose to end the pregnancy.
The defeated amendment which baffled me the most was to
allow for terminations during an inevitable miscarriage. Currently in Ireland,
if you miscarry, you’re told we can’t help you, just go home and wait.
Depending how far along the pregnancy is, this waiting could take three or four
days. This was the only amendment which could have saved Savita Halapanavar had
this legislation been in place a year ago. In countries where abortion
legislation is broader, you can chose to end the miscarriage via a D&C.
This results in the cervix being open for a considerably shorter amount of
time, thus reducing the risk of infection, and can also reduce the mental
anguish of the person miscarrying.
One distinction that anti-choicers repeatedly used was the
misinformed idea that abortions are different from necessary medical
interventions which end a pregnancy. Soz, nope. In cases of ectopic
pregnancies, the zygote is pretty much directly targeted and removed.
Obviously, if an ectopic pregnancy is left untreated for long enough, the
damage to the fallopian tube can be so great that it must be removed. This is
often done in very Catholic hospitals – patients must wait until their tube is
so damaged before they can receive treatment, because then you can say that it’s
not really abortion. This misguided argument
has also been used when discussing this bill, despite the fact that the word ‘abortion’
isn’t used once, it’s always called a medical procedure or medical
intervention. Sarah Malone deals amazingly with both these points in a recentinterview (also note how it’s two middle aged, British men arguing against a
young, Irish woman about abortion in Ireland…)
It was not only the legislation which caused controversy
over the lst few days at the Dáil. During the first sitting, which went on til
5am, Tom Barry TD pulled Áine Collins onto his lap and held her there while
she was clearly uncomfortable, only releasing her after a pat on her very lower
back. A number of male TDs around them are seemingly unbothered by this
behaviour. During a debate about women’s reproductive rights, a female TD is
sexually harassed. Because what happened was sexual harassment. Collins later
accepted Barry’s apology, but that doesn’t mean it was OK. It shows the way in
which the Dáil is still very much set in a Mad Men era. Excuses have been made,
ranging from the fact that the heating wasn’t on (it was a 27 degree day), the
few drinks he’d had (why our politicians are allowed drink while debating life
and death legislation is for another day) or simply that it was ‘silly’ and a
bit of ‘horseplay’.
We haven’t exactly come a long way in the last 21 years regarding
abortion legislation in Ireland. This legislation is not yet law, and odds are
it will face many more hurdles set up by the anti-choicers and misogynist
politicians, but I’m confident that it will pass, and Ireland will be a
slightly safer country for pregnant women*.
But it’s important not to get complacent. We shouldn’t wait
another 21 years, or for another tragic death, before we get the 8th
Amendment repealed. We need a referendum to remove this out-dated,
religious-based, misogynist article from our constitution. Then, we can make
real progress with reproductive rights in Ireland.
I'm American! Am I qualified to them they're eejits?
ReplyDeleteNick, I think due to the fact that you don't see Ireland as the last 'beacon of hope' when it comes to restricting women*'s reproductive rights means you're one of the lovely ones who we like :)
DeleteAye! Also, you've lived here, have a significant other from here, and regularly visit here. Certainly entitles you to a say.
ReplyDelete