I’ve talked a lot recently about people getting in the way of access to abortion in Ireland. The women who ratted their housemate out to the police because she wasn’t sorry enough about her abortion. I’ve gotten deeply snarky about people who make mind-bogglingly ignorant arguments against pregnant people’s right to choose.

I have’t talked that much about the other side: the people who speak up. Those who tell their stories. People who risk arrest and villification to choose their own path or to support others’ choices. The big damn abortion heroes of our time.

As there are a lot of people to share, this post is split this into three parts. Part One is here.

Telling it like it is

It’s illegal to import or take abortion pills. Nevertheless, people do it every day. While it’s legal to leave the country for an abortion, until recently it’s been considered such a shameful thing to do that most women went through the whole process in secret.

 To share that you’ve had an abortion has been taboo- despite the fact that more than 150,000 people are recorded as having gone to the UK for terminations since it was made unconstitutional in 1983. I shouldn’t have to say this, but: that figure of 150,000 is almost certainly far smaller than the true figures. It doesn’t include anyone who bought abortion pills online since they’ve become available, anyone who had an abortion in the UK and didn’t share their Irish address, or anyone who went to a different country. It leaves out every self-induced abortion that nobody heard of.

It takes immense courage to share your abortion story in Ireland. I remember the first time I heard those words- “I had an abortion”- in a public space: Continue reading “Big Damn Abortion Heroes in Ireland: Part Two” →