June 26 2007 / Fight For A Women's Right to Choose!
Choice Ireland, a newly formed abortion rights activist group are holding a Pro Choice Rally at 2pm, Saturday 30th June at Central Bank Plaza, Dame St, Dublin.
Speakers include Sen. David Norris and Ivana Bacik.
Weblog at http://choiceireland.blogspot.com/
I have always been pro-choice, for two reasons. The first is that the state should not be entitled to interfere with the reproductive rights of any citizen, be they male or female. I feel that as a democrat, the fact that we, as Irish citizens, continue to allow the state to interfere in that most personal of spheres is abhorrent. The second reason I am pro-choice is that I believe that the rights of a pregnant woman take precedence over the unborn. It is her body that will carry the pregnancy to full term. Bringing an baby into the world is a life altering experience - so life-altering that the woman should be entitled to the right to decide, after conception, whether she wants to have that experience or not. When it comes right down to a termination, It is the business of nobody except the woman, not even the man involved - he is not pregnant.
While I would tend to believe that there are moral and psychological consequences to obtaining an abortion, the fact remains that it is for the woman to decide and nobody else. It is her body, her pregnancy and her choice. She should be given all information and then left alone to make an informed decision.
The people decided in 2002 to let the provisions in the Constitution made in the 1990's to remain. This means that abortion is legal when the life of the mother is in danger. However, there is no legislation for this. It is time that there was legislation for it. I call on all the parties in Fáíl Éireann to stop sitting on the fence for reasons of political self-interest and address the issue.
Thousands of Irish women leave this country every year to seek abortions. It is high time we matured as a nation and provided this service ourselves, as opposed to fudging the issue or pretending it (or the women involved) does not exist. This issue does exist and it is time we - as a nation - faced up to this. What is certain is that as long as the current status of abortion in this country remains, it will continue to do so.
If your mother, sister, cousin, aunt or friend became pregnant and reached the decision where she did not want to proceed with the pregnancy, wouldn't you want them to be able to have freedom of choice in their own country, and not have to undergo the additional trauma of having to leave it in order to seek an end to their suffering, if that is what they so chose?
Amongst other things, democracy means freedom of choice when it comes to the privacy of our own bodies, whether we like the choices or not. The fact that women are denied full rights relating to all aspects of their reproductive systems is nothing short of scandalous. It's her body, her reproductive process, and nobody but her has the right to make that sort of a decision. It's called freedom of choice, one of the wonders of democratic government. Do we or do we not live in a democracy?