Tweeting an abortion

[Deleted User]

Here in the UK the abortion debate has been settled for many years but across the Irish Sea things are much different.

In Ireland terminations are only allowed if the mother's life is in danger including from suicide.All other procedures including children conceived through rape or incest or with fatal abnormalities have to be full term.

An unnamed woman set off from Ireland this morning travelling to England in order to have an abortion with a friend travelling in support and helping her tweet about what was happening in order to bring pressure on the Irish government to change the law.

3,500 Irish women a year make this same journey.

Please re-tweet if you wish to support.

#twowomentravel

baby_lemonade

The 'abortion debate' is far from settled (!) but at least women don't have to go to Vera Drakes to get rid of their 'problem' anymore.

There are [STRIKE]nutters[/STRIKE] anti-abortion activists in my local town every Weds, holding up posters of aborted foetuses in full view of children, women and everyone passing by. The Police can do nothing about them.


I think these women are very brave (foolish?) to come out and tweet about having an abortion, because 1) a lot of people would believe that to be murder. I'm not one of them, I'm just saying there's people who view abortion to be a truly evil act. And 2) you're not actually allowed to have an abortion here in the UK unless 2 doctors sign to say the woman's health would be at risk if the pregnancy were to continue. By going so public they could in fact be legally stopped if someone chose to do so.

No I won't be tweeting or re-tweeting it.

Kim_kim

I think the Irish government have a backward & misygonist stance on abortion.
I've never had one, but I'm very pro choice.

Person_one

baby_lemonade wrote: »

you're not actually allowed to have an abortion here in the UK unless 2 doctors sign to say the woman's health would be at risk if the pregnancy were to continue.

Including mental health, and there isn't a doctor in the country who would argue with the fact that being forced to continue a pregnancy you don't want is a danger to your mental health.

Even in terms of physical health, being pregnant is always more risky than not being pregnant. We essentially (rightly) have abortion on demand with a few bits of paperwork/lines in the legislation to keep people happy/quiet who don't really like the idea.

baby_lemonade

Person_one wrote: »

Including mental health, and there isn't a doctor in the country who would argue with the fact that being forced to continue a pregnancy you don't want is a danger to your mental health.

Even in terms of physical health, being pregnant is always more risky than not being pregnant. We essentially (rightly) have abortion on demand with a few bits of paperwork/lines in the legislation to keep people happy/quiet who don't really like the idea.

..which is underhanded and misleading, in my opinion.

There are actually many doctors here who refuse to sign the papers for an 'abortion on demand' as they have every right to do. Equally of course there are many who would sign.

I'm not saying it would happen in this particular case, but if the father (who appears to have been written out of the script) disagreed with the baby being aborted he could probably legally attempt to stop the abortion if he chose to, as there is no mention of physical or mental health issues in the mother.

An interesting case, which will no doubt get many peoples backs up on either side of the debate. I'm just amazed at this woman's bravery (or foolishness) at putting the contents of her womb up for public discussion!

Rosemary7391

baby_lemonade wrote: »

There are [STRIKE]nutters[/STRIKE] anti-abortion activists in my local town every Weds, holding up posters of aborted foetuses in full view of children, women and everyone passing by. The Police can do nothing about them.

That might be in bad taste, depends on the images I guess (I've never seen one so can't really comment), but isn't calling them nutters a bit much? Sounds like they disagree with the law and are exercising their right to peaceful protest/campaigning; that's how it's supposed to work isn't it?

Callie22

There was a very moving article in the Guardian (I think) recently, written by an Irish doctor who had to travel to the UK for an abortion when her baby was found to have severe abnormalities that would have meant that her child would not have lived long after birth. It's sad enough for a couple to have to go through that but to force women to have to travel to another country, far away from family and support, in order to have a termination just makes me so angry (or indeed to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term in those cases). The laws in Ireland are just so backward on this.

Tiddlywinks

Deleted_User wrote: »

Please re-tweet if you wish to support.

#twowomentravel

A life is about to be snuffed out - why would I want to spread the word about that?

moneyistooshorttomention

baby_lemonade wrote: »

The 'abortion debate' is far from settled (!) but at least women don't have to go to Vera Drakes to get rid of their 'problem' anymore.

There are [STRIKE]nutters[/STRIKE] anti-abortion activists in my local town every Weds, holding up posters of aborted foetuses in full view of children, women and everyone passing by. The Police can do nothing about them.

I rather think it sounds like the police don't wish to acknowledge their responsibilities there.

Surely the Protection from Harassment Act would cover this?

On the other hand - couldnt some sympathetic group take out a blanket injunction forbidding these anti-abortionists being within a certain distance of vulnerable women?

baby_lemonade

Callie22 wrote: »

There was a very moving article in the Guardian (I think) recently, written by an Irish doctor who had to travel to the UK for an abortion when her baby was found to have severe abnormalities that would have meant that her child would not have lived long after birth. It's sad enough for a couple to have to go through that but to force women to have to travel to another country, far away from family and support, in order to have a termination just makes me so angry (or indeed to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term in those cases). The laws in Ireland are just so backward on this.

I agree, it's awful and draconian. But they've seen what happens if you allow abortion 'on medical grounds' (see Person_one's post) - it gets abused, so they won't allow it.

moneyistooshorttomention

BTW - I dont do tweets about anything - but my very best wishes to this brave woman. Hope all goes well for her.