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PROTESTERS GATHERED IN Dublin today to demonstrate against the highly restrictive abortion law introduced in Texas.
The protest took place to coincide with hundreds of similar demonstrations across the US.
The Texan law effectively bans abortion before some women know they are pregnant, and there are no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Enforcement is solely left up to private citizens, who are entitled to at least $10,000 in damages if they are successful in suing not just abortion providers but anyone found to have helped a woman get an abortion.
A large crowd gathered in O’Connell Street today, with demonstrators carrying placards and signs sending support from “Dublin to Dallas”.
Ailbhe Smyth, one of the leaders of the campaign that successfully led to the liberalisation of Ireland’s abortion law in 2018, told the crowd that Irish people understand the fear many women in Texas are feeling.
“We understand your struggle. We know your fight. We are here to do whatever we can. We have been through it and we do not want it to happen again,” she said.
Smyth called the Texan law an “absolute abomination” and accused the Texas of creating a “citizen police state”.
The law was signed by Republican governor Greg Abbott in May and took effect on 1 September.
Abortion providers there have described Texas clinics that are now in danger of closing while neighbouring states struggle to keep up with a surge of patients who must drive hundreds of miles from Texas.
Other women, they say, are being forced to carry pregnancies to term.
The Irish electorate voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment in a 2018 referendum, ushering in a major liberalisation of Ireland’s abortion law and ending what was effectively a constitutional ban on abortion.
Smyth, who had campaigned for the removal of the amendment for decades, said that activists should not be “complacent” about the situation in Ireland.
“Maybe we do need to write bodily integrity and the right to it into our constitutions, into our human rights law.
So maybe it is time to start campaigning again for that to be in our own constitution.
“Because bodily integrity is not only for women, it is for all those, everyone, who in any way might find their rights in any way obstructed by the law.”
Rita Harrold, an abortion rights campaigner from Dublin, said: “We’re here today to send solidarity to the huge number of protests that are going to be going on all across the United States.”
She said that people shouldn’t have to travel to access abortion.
“It is really relatable to us in Ireland, that people might be forced to do that.”
“Can you imagine how full Irish prisons would be if everyone that had given their friend €50, had helped her to organise a bus, had helped her to organise a train, had helped her to organise a ferry ticket, was in prison right now for all the Irish abortion journeys that we’ve had.”
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This country is sinking in debt and us the taxpayers are fed up.
@James: Does this include Eamon Ryan’s “special appointment” Cara Augustenborg? She’s doing some amount of posting photos from fancy hotels on social media. Wonder if these are going down as expenses?
Great. More tax
@Shaun Gallagher: Green policies cost I’m afraid. We can try and ignore climate change but it won’t save us from the inevitable economic crash that will follow increased temperatures
@Mickety Dee: Green policies, what does that mean exactly? More tax on fuel when there are no alternatives will not save the planet.
@Mickety Dee: increased temperatures will have very little direct effect on ireland or Irelands economy. The effect it may have on the world wide economy is a different matter but since no matter what we do will have any impact on climate change then we should be the last people to make the changes not the first. It’s like two people at the top of a cliff looking at doing a dive, one says you go first I’ll follow, first person jumps and splats on a hidden rock under the water, ends up paralysed for the rest of their life. The second person looks on and says nah, I’ve changed my mind and decides to walk down to a much lower level on a different part of the cliff that they know to be safe and then jumps.
Our government are so eager to be seen to be best in class we are foolishly handing over energy security, driving up costs of homes with rolls Royce building regs for every new home meaning most can’t afford them, on the verge of handing over food security by destroying our aggri sector. We are jumping off that cliff recklessly for no discernable benefit
@Anthony Guinnessy: I think you’ll find the Irish economy is heavily correlated with the world economy. We are a long way from leaders in green policies and even then way behind on targets.
@Steve: An example would be subsidies on wind energy which translates into a tax on your electricity bill. Without subsidies and carbon tax there would be no wind generation on the island. The same would apply to recycling. It is still far cheaper to extract raw materials than recycle them.
It does seem crazy. Just six years ago the doors were thrown open on dairy sector deregulation which drove up investment and quotas and flattened prices. How was the ‘green’ impact of that decision not factored in at the time? Simon Coveney has questions to answer about wildly contradictory policy
@Eoin Roche: there is no plan or long term strategy that planning must align with. There are lobby groups who get what they ask for and over time we end up with a patchwork quilt of lobby appeasing policies that are fit for nothing. We get rid of sugar beet production and increase our dairy herd. Its mind boggling how short term and self serving (for a few) that we have allowed our system to become.
I for one am in favour of the jobs the comet will create.
Irelands headlong dash to be first to the climate action post at all costs no matter who it hurts will have very serious consequences for the economy and future generations
The Irish government practice of showboating on the world stage continues, and we, the people are the ones to suffer.
@Ciaran Maher: yep well said
@Ciaran Maher: yep showboating aptly described it
@Ciaran Maher: Are you really suffering? Doubt it. And certainly not as much as people who live in the areas directly impacted by climate change.
@Paul Whitehead: And these measures will relieve their plight, while China builds more coal fired power stations every week.
have your say