Orlagh Winters: Kudos To Sydney Rose For Voicing Opinion About Eighth Amendment

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Orlagh New 1“ORLAGH Winters, get outside my door and don’t come back until you change your attitude!”

Over 25 years ago and I still remember the day that I was asked to leave religion class, because I dared to disagree with the nun who was giving a very one sided debate about abortion.

I argued that no two cases are the same and that at the end of the day the girl should have the choice on whether or not she wished to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

Years later and my views have not changed and unfortunately neither has the law changed greatly. The law now states that abortion is legal only when a pregnant woman’s life is at risk. This includes the risk of suicide.

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Abortion is not legal in cases of rape, incest or foetal anomaly. Women can however travel to another country and access termination; in fact an estimated 5,000 women make that journey every year.

On the 28th October, Savita Halappanavar, a 31 year old lady died due to a septic miscarriage while she was seventeen weeks pregnant at University Hospital Galway. She was told she would miscarry and requested a termination on a number of occasions.

This request was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat. Has Savita’s death been in vain? Are our government afraid to repeal the Eight Amendment to the constitution? If so, why?

The Eighth Amendment equates the right to the life of a pregnant woman with that of an embryo or foetus. In doing so it criminalises abortion in all cases except where to continue a pregnancy would result in death.

During her interview on stage during the Rose of Tralee festival, the Sydney Rose dared to raise her head above the parapet and voice an opinion about our archaic laws.

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Kudos to her is what I say; she used the platform about women’s issues to a huge audience. We need to discuss it openly, we need to have a debate and at the end of the day, we need to stop exporting our problem. Women do not make the decision to terminate a pregnancy on a whim.

Last week there was a story on twitter “Two Women Travel” who live tweeted their journey to the UK to have an abortion.  They shared their story and it was compelling.

When are we going to stop exiling our problem and show compassion for those who for various reasons have chosen to terminate their pregnancies?

I know my views are not shared by everyone and I risk getting abuse for my opinion but you know what, I don’t care. What I do care about are the 5000 women who are shamed into secrecy and guilt.

We can continue to pretend that this doesn’t happen but the day is reckoning when Irish women will have a say and will have a choice and I for one hope that it won’t be another 25 years from now. #repealthe8th

2 Comments

  1. There are so many thinks that can be said, about a woman reproduction rights, but killingc a baby is murder!

  2. Brendan Walsh says:

    Quote: “I know my views are not shared by everyone and I risk getting abuse for my opinion but you know what, I don’t care”

    Why do you feel the need to consider an opposite opinion than your a form of ‘abuse’? Surely the opinion that the unborn child within the womb of his/or her mother has rights also. Could it be that real ‘archaic opinion’ (unscientific) is just a clump of cells.

    Wherever there is human life there are human rights. Should the numbers travelling for abortion to Britain or elsewhere be factual, this means that there are five thousand human lives lost each year simply because of ‘free choice’ of the mother as well as perhaps the fathers.

    This issue regarding the 8th Amendment has really very little to do with the real problem. I am all for free choice for everybody. The problem in these 5,000 cases you mention is that the living human person within the womb have no choice at all.

    There is a defence of life within the parameters of legal medical standards, then laid out in the 8th Amendment. At a time when “Planned Parenthood’ have been indicted in America for selling body parts from aborted (human being). It is hard to accept any argument based on the premise of women feeling ‘ashamed’ to justify (not termination) but the killing of a living human being.

    What you are really stating in your article is more influenced by political correctness than it is by logical deduction. Apart from any religious grounds it must be puzzling from a purely ‘humanitarian’ perspective how such deliberate killing of the living but as yet unborn, could be remotely acceptable other than the medical necessity related to the ( real danger) to the health and life of the mother.

    The case you quote, has well documented facts that relate more to medical
    malpractice as is an extreme example to help support your opinion.

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