
Pro-choice protesters in Dublin. (Credit: The Guardian)
Under Ireland’s total abortion ban, women aren’t able to legally terminate a pregnancy unless their lives depend on it — but, as Savita’s case illustrates, doctors in the deeply Catholic country are often wary to provide abortion care even in cases of medical emergency. The rest of Europe allows for much greater reproductive freedom. On average, about 11 Irish women travel to Britain each day to terminate a pregnancy. Activists are risking jail time to disseminate information to those women, giving them more resources to help them access the care they need either abroad or online:
They are targeting cafes, pubs, clubs, gym changing rooms and public toilets with thousands of leaflets giving contact details for British abortion clinics as well as the price of terminations. The literature includes a website where Irish women can buy early abortion pills (effective up to nine weeks of pregnancy) online via womenonweb.org.
Organisers and supporters behind the campaign, which began after Savita Halappanavar’s death in Galway University Hospital last autumn, say they intend to intensify their leaflet blitz after the government approved a bill on Tuesday to allow for strictly limited abortions in Ireland.
Disseminating information on how to buy early abortion pills is illegal in the Republic and under the new legislation those helping to procure an illicit termination risk being jailed for up to 14 years.
The Abortion Support Network (ASN), a Irish charity that helps women access abortion services in Britain, applauded the guerrilla campaign. “The leaflet is a one-stop shop that tells women which local organisations can provide unbiased information about all their options, contact details for clinics in England and information on where to turn to for financial help or access to early medical abortion pills,” one of ASN’s founders, Mara Clarke, told the Guardian. “This information needs to be put into the hands of women and I hope the leaflets find their way into every women’s toilet, changing room and pub in Ireland.”
Ireland is considering legislation that would include clarifying guidelines to help doctors navigate the abortion ban, in an attempt to prevent more women like Savita from being denied the abortion care that could save their lives. But pro-choice activists say that the new bill is an impossibly small step toward greater reproductive rights. It would require a panel of three doctors to unanimously approve a termination for a life-threatening situation. For women who have suicidal thoughts, up to six doctors could end up reviewing her case to ensure she is not somehow cheating the system to obtain an abortion.
The proposed measure also doesn’t include any exceptions for rape, incest, or fatal fetal defects. A group of women who were forced to travel to Britain to obtain an abortion because their fetuses had fatal abnormalities, and therefore would have died shortly after birth, told the Guardian they have been “left out and let down” by the new legislative push.










Irish lawmakers are contemplating a measure that would make it easier for underwater homeowners to reduce their mortgage debt. As the New York Times reported, “The initiative, which would lower a borrower’s monthly payment,
This post contains spoilers through the Nov. 13 episode of Boardwalk Empire.
This post contains spoilers through the November 6 episode of Boardwalk Empire.
