4 articles 2nd is Irish struggle for abortion rights (1983 - 1992) 3rd is The Censorship of Abortion Information Act, 1995 4th is Freedom of choice ******** Abortion: A Woman's Right to Choose ********** from Workers Solidarity No 34 (1992) Anarchists believe that every woman has the right to choose an abortion when faced with a crisis pregnancy irrespective of the reasons for the abortion. At least 40,000 Irish women have abortions in England every year at present. Women worldwide have always sought to control their fertility through abortion no matter how difficult it is for them to get access to abortion and they probably always will. This is because it is essential for women to be able to control their own fertility and not to be reduced to the level of their biological function as child-bearers only if they are to achieve true equality and liberation. At present the Irish Constitution with the the Eight Amendment reduces women to being equal only to a completely dependent foetus and it tries to condemn women to become unwilling incubators. To compare an adult woman or teenage girl with responsibilities, social relationships, personal plans, and so on to a completely dependent foetus is unacceptable. The foetus has no independent existence without the woman and the decision about an abortion or a continuation of the pregnancy must be the woman's decision and no one else's. Women choose to have abortions for all kinds of reasons: poverty, bad health, too many other children, because of rape or incest or simply because they do not want to have a child at that point in their lives. We believe that all these reasons are valid. Women should not have to answer to anyone, not the church,not the state or even to doctors for their decision. This raises the question of abortion on demand. We oppose any kind of decision making process involving ethics committees or doctors or other variations on this. A woman must have the right to abortion on demand. The question of free access is a very important one. At present only those women who can afford both the travel costs and the operation costs can get an abortion. Abortion facilities must be made available here in Ireland and they must be free as all medical services should be. Censorship of information on abortion is a totally insulting attack on womens' most basic rights as thinking human beings to know what all the options are when they are faced with a crisis pregnancy. To deny women information, to take books out of libraries, censor magazines containing telephone numbers, all these actions treat women as irresponsible children whose moral decisions need to be policed by small groups of right wing bigots. The hypocrisy of allowing women to go to England for abortions is no longer acceptable to many Irish people. Apart from all other considerations, having to raise the money for the travel and to go isolated and afraid to another country adds untold trauma to what should be a fairly simple medical procedure. Abortion facilities must be made available in Ireland free and without restricted access. Anarchists believe that a woman's right to choose also means the right to choose to have a child and to have decent housin, child care and welfare facilities available in order to raise that child in a reasonable way and in order that her life is not totally given over to child care. At present with the current housing crisis the almost total lack of free child care and the lousy welfare payments this is not a real choice. We are opposed to all forms of forced fertility control, whether it is the state imposing limits on the number of children a woman can have as in China or the denial of proper contraceptive and abortion facilities as in this country. The right to choose means the right to choose not to have a child or to have a child in circumstances where that means that neither mother nor child suffer materially or socially for that decision. Anti-abortionists say that abortion is murder. We reject this argument. The foetus is a potential life only - it is not comparable to the life of a person of any age or ability who interacts socially and functions independently. We don't deny that abortion takes the life of a potential human being. The right to choose means that it is the woman's right to choose whether to bring that potential life to full term or not given the circumstances of her life. As anarchists we demand that right and we will be active in the campaign for abortion rights in this country over the coming months. Patricia McCarthy *** Irish struggle for abortion rights (1983 - 1992) *** from Workers Solidarity No 35 (1992) IN 1983 anti-choice campaigners pushed the government into holding a referendum on abortion. The Eight Amendment was then passed by 33% of the electorate (the turn out was 54.6%). Abortion was already prohibited under the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act. The Eight Amendment copperfastened this ban preventing any reforming legislation. SPUC's next step was to take those clinics which provided non-directive counseling to court. In the Hamiliton Judgement of 1987 the High Court placed injunctions on the Well Women Centre and on Open-Line Counseling prohibiting them from operating non-directive counseling services. The clinics failed in their appeal to the Supreme Court. The ruling by Justice Finlay extended the Hamiliton interpretation by declaring the imparting of any information relating to the procurement of abortion to be unlawful. It was this ruling that was then used to take the Student Unions to court. The Well Woman Centre and the Open-Line Counseling service then took their case to the European Court of Human Rights. The Defend the Clinics Campaign attempted to get liberal/left Irish politicians to raise the issue but many like Emmet Stagg and Micheal D Higgins of the Labour party refused to give even paper support, frightened for their D‡il seats. Student Unions SPUC continued on the offensive, taking the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Trinity College and UCD Student Union to court. SPUC lost the case initially on very dubious grounds. There was a large amount of publicity surrounding the case arising from student demonstrations outside the courts. At the last moment the Justice that was supposed to hear the case was replaced by Irelands only female judge, Justice Mella Carroll. She ruled that all the evidence against the students was hearsay and so could not be used. This is in spite of the fact that the students had widely said in newspapers and interviews that they would provide abortion information and had included it in Student Union guide books. The judgement seemed to be a cop out for the Irish ruling class who did not want to be seen to be sending students to jail for contempt of court. This ruling was appealed by SPUC who won, a temporary injunction being placed on the Student Unions. The Students Unions are being brought back to court by SPUC on July 19th this year in order to have this injunction made permanent. The student union campaign took two turns. The leadership within the Unions toned down the level of campaigning on the issue, concentrating solely on appealing to Europe. Those activists that argued that the law should be publicly broken were told that we would be jeopardising the case by angering the judges. In the end the European Court found that the Students Unions could not give out abortion information. It is still illegal to give out information on abortion. Within the individual student unions, many anti-choice groups held referenda aimed at overturning the Unions' mandate to distribute information. These anti-choice groups only succeeded in reversing a pro-information policy in one of the universities, UCD. However they were defeated in all but one of the Regional Technical Colleges. Overall, more students voted for giving out abortion information than against. While the Student Union leaders waited for Europe, the Abortion Information groups in most universities ceased to exist. Meanwhile the Censorship of Publications Act was used to ban books and sections of magazines which contained information on where to get an abortion. Cosmopolitan and other British magazines now carry a blank page where ads. for British abortion clinics should be. Recently the Guardian newspaper was not distributed because of an advertisement for the Mary Stopes Clinic. In 1991 the Trinity College Right to Information Group held a public meeting in order to launch a Dublin group. Following from this the Dublin Abortion Information Campaign (DAIC) began to meet regularly. Initially they concentrated on defying the ban in in order to draw more people into the campaign and to provide information. More public meetings were held to highlight the issue and information leaflets were distributed in O'Connell Street. Dublin County Council voted to remove two health books from the library which contained abortion information. Though DAIC attempted to replace the book the issue got very little coverage. DAIC decided to slow down to one activity a month in order to try and maintain some interest over a very bleak period. On Wednesday February 12th., some of the Irish papers carried a short piece about an injunction being granted against a 14 year old alleged rape victim to prevent her traveling to Britain in order to obtain an abortion. The case was not yet an issue. DAIC called a picket for the following Monday and a rally the following Saturday. Though furious about the case, given the present climate and the lack of advertising many felt no more than about 200 would turn up. However 1,000 people ended up marching to the attorney generals office. Many of those on the march had not been involved in the campaigning since the 1983 referendum, and quickly jostling took place as to who would 'in charge' of any future campaigns. Secret meetings were called by separate groups of feminists and liberals. Both groups wanted to exclude the left as much as possible, when in fact, it was mainly left wing activists who had being attempting to keep the issue alive for the last 10 years. Following the unexpectedly large turn out of the march, the press and politicians started to speak out about the case. One grouping held a silent vigil of the D‡il. DAIC realised that the turnout for the Saturday rally would be big enough for a march. We hoped for 4,000. It was this march that put the case right on top of the political agenda. At least 10,000, mainly young people, marched and chanted 'Right to Choose'. It was noticeable that there were only five banners present, indicating that many people had spontaneously come out. People were angry. Pressure was kept on by almost continual protests the following week. The first item on the news was reports of scuffles at the D‡il. The Government was coming under huge pressure. On ThursdayFebruary 20th. the 14 year old was granted her appeal. The injunction was lifted and soon after she traveled to Britain in order to get her abortion. These days it's not often that you have such a good example of how far and how quickly public opinion can change. A delegate from the Cork Abortion Information Campaign commented at a recent conferences, that before the "X" case had arisen, the Cork group met to consider seeking another referendum on abortion information in University College Cork. Two years earlier UCC, an extremely conservative university had voted massively against giving out information. The Cork group felt they would probably loose but would attempt it anyhow. Then the 14 year old case happened, and the UCC referendum was won with over 70% supporting abortion information. A week later, Manooth, the university of the Irish Catholic Clergy also overturned their policy and voted to distribute abortion information. Similarly, its not often as an socialist involved in campaigns that you can see how your actions are changing society for the better. This case is one of the few exceptions. DAIC consisted of a small group of activists, perhaps 30 in all. Yet when things started happening, when the case arose, we were there, ready and capable of responding. Without DAIC, it is unlikely that the march would have been organised or that the protests would have continued for so long. Without that pressure, its unlikely that the 14 year old would have been able to travel to Britain. A section of the feminists called a conference in order to launch the Repeal the Eight Amendment Campaign. (R8AC). DAIC affiliated to it. The Conference itself was jumbled and frustrating. Those calling it had a fixed agenda and were very hostile to any democratic attempt to amend it through motions. Many activists found the actual conference demoralising and antagonistic. It did however lead to the setting up of a campaign, weakly based in the cities. Most of the co-ordinating committee of REAC wanted to run a media campaigning and set about getting sponsors and important speakers. They however ran into troubles. Besides Democratic Left, no other political party would come near it, expressing caution and wanting to wait and see. Many of Ireland's womens organistations also refused to get involved. Despite efforts the media refused to pick up on press statements. At the moment the main weakness of the campaign is that is still attempting to become an 'important' force at the expense of organising viable local action groups. REAC needs to stop looking to the politicians and the media to fight the campaign for us. Stunts and theatrical events do have a place in a campaign but they should be a backup to establishing a mass basis on the ground throughout the 26 counties. REAC has failed to draw in new forces in Dublin to campaign against Maastracht. If we are to put repealing the 8th amendment on the political agenda we need more then stunts. We need to involve huge numbers of people through activity in the unions and the community. We need to construct action groups based around activities in all areas. This must become the first priority of the campaign. We forced the government to overturn the injunction when 10,000 marched in Dublin. We need to get out similar numbers if we are to have any hope of forcing the government to hold a referendum scrapping the 8th amendment. *************** ** The Censorship of Abortion Information Act, 1995 ** from WS 45 (1995) In the autumn of 1992, the people of Ireland voted to legalise abortion information. More than two years later, the government has finally introduced a Bill to 'regulate' this information. Ray Cunningham examines it. Even though an clear majority (60%) voted in favour of abortion information, the legal position on the distribution of this information remained confused. Counselling services and information groups, fearful of being taken to court, erred on the side of caution when it came to abortion, and so the news that a Bill was being introduced was welcomed in many quarters. At last, the threat of injunction would be lifted. As the Bill was published, however, it became clear that it was more restrictive than many could have imagined. Conditions Some of the conditions were expected, and had been part of Brendan Howlin's widely leaked draft Bill in 1994. Bans on the advertising of abortion services, and the distribution of unsolicited information (eg., through posters and leaflets) were predictable. Though often covered by other laws, like the Litter Act, no political party wants to be seen as 'soft' on abortion, and these bans gave them some cover from the anti-abortion groups. The Noonan Bill, however, goes much further. Doctors will be allowed to give women the addresses and phone numbers of clinics in Britain, in the context of counselling, but they will not be able make an appointment or other arrangement for women with these clinics. This means that important medical information may not be directly passed on from the doctor to the clinic, with possibly dangerous consequences. This intrusion into the doctor/patient relationship is backed up with Garda’ powers of search and seizure and criminal penalties for breaking the law (previously, only a civil injunction could be used) in case any doctor is foolish enough to think that the health and welfare of his/her patients is more important than Des Hanafin's Catholic morals. Appeasement The reasoning behind this legislative doublethink is very simple - there aren't any votes in abortion. Politicians know that, apart from the relatively small groups at opposite ends of the pro-choice/anti-abortion spectrum, few people regard it as an important issue. Generally, all that is required is that they be seen to be neutral, and they will be praised for their statesmanlike qualities. In reality, they are far from neutral. The very publication of this Bill was seen as a boost for the progressive agenda, but its draconian measures received very little coverage. Noonan is set to further appease right-wing Catholics. It was pointed out that, outside of Dublin, there are very few pregnancy counselling services, but this is to be remedied. With the only counselling requirement in the Bill being that abortion is not advocated, funding is likely to be approved for Cura, a Catholic anti-abortion counselling service, to train their counsellors and provide a national service. At least they have plenty of practice in not advocating abortion! Democracy? Noonan shouldn't be singled out, though. All politicians have become very skilled at not dealing with things. Not dealing with divorce, not dealing with contraception, not dealing, in fact, with anything that might offend those fabled 'grassroots'. It has reached the point where Maire Geogehan-Quinn is praised for her "courage" in legalising homosexuality - 5 years after the European Court ordered it! The wait for abortion in Ireland will be even longer, at least if we wait passively for the government to do anything. Since the 1992 Supreme Court ruling in the 'X' case that, in certain circumstances, abortion was legal in Ireland, the political parties have been praying desperately that everyone will just forget about it because they know that, on that issue at least, they can't please everybody - either abortion is legal, in whatever circumstances, or it isn't - there is no middle ground to find. Of course, the fact that in 1992, people voted against rolling back the Supreme Court judgement, and said that the threat of suicide was sufficient grounds to have an abortion, gives us more than an inkling as to the wishes of the people. Having a government that respected the wishes of the people, though, is too crazy a thought to be taken seriously. *********************************************** Freedom of choice IN 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that, in some circumstances, women were allowed to have an abortion in Ireland. Yet over 4,000 women a year still have to travel to England for an abortion. Again in 1992, we voted to allow freedom of information about abortion, yet the D‡il passes laws that are extremely restrictive and intrusive, in defiance of our wishes. Where is our freedom? Freedom The Workers Solidarity Movement has always supported a woman's right to control her own body, and have campaigned for this right as part of the pro-choice movement. We believe that control over one's fertility is an essential part of individual freedom. Personal freedom is expressed in other ways - in asserting your sexuality, heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian, gay, whatever it may be - in asserting your culture, when, like that of the Travellers, it is ghettoised and stigmatised. The freedom to be your own person, and take pride in yourself, is often lacking in our society. Equality But freedom must have its limits. Freedom to have sex doesn't mean freedom to rape - the freedom of one must be balanced by the equal freedom of all. Nowhere is this balance more obviously lacking than in economics. Capitalism is based on the freedom to acquire as much money as possible, but where there is wealth there is also poverty. The fortunes of the Smurfits, the Goodmans, the Bransons, are balanced by the millions that go to bed hungry each night, the millions more that die every year as a direct result of poverty. Even in Ireland, part of the industrialised, developed West, with the highest rate of economic growth in the European Union, there is poverty. How many people sleep rough on the streets of our cities, how many barely scrape by from week to week, how many thousands are unemployed? Too many. Anarchism Anarchism offers a way forward. Society organised from below, not from the top down by obscenely rich industrialists, self-serving politicians, or the 'benevolent' dictatorship of the party. Power cannot be used against us if we keep it in our own hands, and use it to create a society based, not on the freedom to exploit others, nor on a forced equality that destroys individuality, but on real freedom, real socialism, real anarchism.