I don’t agree with abortion so what do I do?
You don’t have to agree with abortion to vote YES. You just have to agree that the woman is the one who should decide, along with her doctor.
Many people feel this way. The Irish Times, in a recent opinion poll showed that 48% said they were planning to vote YES, but 62% believed it was the woman’s right to choose. The only way women can have that right to choose for themselves is if we vote YES to change the current set-up.
It shouldn’t be left up to politicians.
Indeed it shouldn’t – it should be up to the woman herself in consultation with her doctor. We must trust women themselves. But we can’t get to that stage without getting rid of the laws that prevent us trusting women, and that means voting YES to remove the 8th Amendment from the Constitution. .
What about the 12 weeks ?
We know that over 90% of abortions happen before 12 weeks anyway. Making it legal will ensure that there will be less hardship on our sisters, mothers, partners, who find themselves unable to face having a child they never intended, and having to find at least €1,000 for the procedure in the UK.
Also a rape victim, who finds herself pregnant, would find it impossible to legally prove rape within 12 weeks. It might take years.
For many good reasons, 12 weeks is recognised by the World Health Organisation as being the safest limit time for the woman to terminate a pregnancy. Indeed if a woman miscarried at that stage, and many do, it would more be like having a heavy period.
But isn’t abortion about killing babies?
- The posters put up by the anti-choice organisations make it look that way – yawning, kicking, beating hearts etc. But these claims are not true.
What is true is that there is a potential human being there, but not yet an actual baby, the acorn is not the oak, and an egg is not a chicken
At present under Irish law, a woman who takes the abortion pill at 6-8 weeks could get 14 years in prison. But the fetus would be less than the size of a pea, and the abortion would look like a heavy period.
What about late abortions – aren’t they babies?
It’s very unusual for a woman to look for, or get, an abortion at 20 weeks or over. By that time, the fetus would be about the size of small banana, but incapable of surviving outside the womb. So it’s still a fetus – not a baby.
Almost always, late abortions are because the baby that would develop from the fetus would die within hours of birth, so badly affected by abnormalities that they can’t live: for example without a brain or proper head (ancephaly).
These are the sad stories of ‘fatal fetal abnormality’ (FFA) we hear about. Most often these are wanted pregnancies, but the abnormality in not discovered until late in the pregnancy, so the women don’t have the option of early termination.
It’s cruel to make such women travel to the UK to end a pregnancy that in most cases, was wanted.
Wouldn’t women, especially young girls, be very casual about sex if abortion were legal?
Having abortion illegal does not stop people having sex, nor does it stop abortion. It just means desperate women will have illegal abortions, or must pay a small fortune to travel for one.
Evidence from other countries shows that what helps prevent teenage pregnancies (and sexually transmitted disease), is good, early sex-education, and contraception that is easily accessible and free.
Abortion rates are going down in countries that recently legalised abortion, like Portugal, Spain and Switzerland and in the rest of the developed world, because better sex education and contraceptives are becoming available. (https://www.vox.com/2016/5/11/11657174/abortion-rates-falling).
But if abortions were legal wouldn’t there be more of them, because women would be less careful?
Women don’t take abortion lightly, no more than other aspects of health care. It is a painful, and for most women, a distressing and expensive procedure. It costs between €1000 and €1500 for Irish women to go to the UK, and yet they must go because they are desperate, not because they prefer that to being on the pill or having a coil inserted.
To repeat: abortion rates are going down in countries that recently legalised abortion. We need to be compassionate and support women, not condemn them.
Abortion is going against my religion
It’s true that the Catholic Church forbids abortion nowadays – but it didn’t always. 140 years ago it wasn’t considered a sin – it was only condemned when a new Pope decided to call it that way.
If it was not a sin 200 years ago, why was it sin 100 years ago, and now today? And it could be different tomorrow, if another Pope changes the rules again!
Many good Catholics use the Pill for instance, though the Church is not in favour. And it is worth noting there is no condemnation of abortion in the Bible, not one..
There is a very good group called Catholics for Choice (http://www.catholicsforchoice.org) that give lots of information for people concerned about their religion and abortion.
And remember, voting yes doesn’t mean YOU have to agree with abortion, just that you agree that the woman should be allowed to make up her own mind for herself.
What about abortions for Down Syndrome, or because they’re the wrong sex?
Apart from fatal fetal abnormality where the baby can’t live after birth, disability is not a ground for abortion being considered in Ireland. Likewise with the baby’s sex.
Down Syndrome is a complex spectrum – for some it’s a very mild condition, for others it can be a very severe disability. This is why the Down Syndrome Trust objected to this issue being used in the NO posters.
Voting YES for choice for women who get this sad news, is a caring and compassionate thing to do. For most of these women the pregnancy was wanted. No doubt their distress is grave. They need our support – not our condemnation.
A Women’s Choice
In the end it comes down to trusting women to make their own decisions in very personal and difficult circumstances. For that to happen we have to VOTE YES
