A NATIONWIDE PROTEST and strike by pro-choice activists saw thousands of people take to the streets yesterday.
An earlier protest on O’Connell Bridge in the centre of Dublin city merged with a further demonstration outside Leinster House yesterday evening.
While protests in favour of a liberalisation of Ireland’s strict abortion laws have been happening annually for years, yesterday’s was extra significant as it was designed to cause disruption on a midweek afternoon.
It was also significant because it was covered by a significant number of international media outlets which have broadcast the story to an international audience.
Here’s how they covered it.
As women around the world wore red in solidarity with International Women’s Day, crowds in Ireland donned black and went on strike to protest against the country’s restrictive abortion laws.
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/916193148522193/
In Ireland, it’s illegal for women to get an abortion – even in cases of rape, incest and fatal fetal abnormalities.
In the early 1980s, fearing that it could be legalised via the courts, the country’s Catholic hierarchy pushed for an amendment to be added to the constitution. The Eighth Amendment passed in 1983 and granted a foetus equal right to life as its mother, effectively outlawing abortion in all circumstances.
In Ireland, one of the developed world’s last countries with a near-total ban on abortion, reproductive rights activists say hope for change hinges on those determined to break the stigma.
Every day, an estimated 12 women in Ireland travel to England to legally access an abortion, often at a cost of around €1,500, and a further three women purchase illegal abortion medication online.
Women who have abortions in the Republic of Ireland face up to 14 years in prison. This is the case for all pregnancies, including those conceived as a result of rape or incest, or where the foetus cannot survive outside the womb due to a fatal abnormality.
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