Ireland: Illegal abortion sends the problem abroad

Commentary by Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS.

Ireland is a modern developed country where women expect to live modern lives. They expect to be educated and to have the chance to work. They expect to be able to plan their families. They expect to enjoy sex without fear of pregnancy. And, as contraception can’t always be relied on, this means they need access to safe legal abortion, just as we do here in Britain.

Every year, BPAS clinics see hundreds of women who have travelled from Irish cities, towns and villages to end crisis pregnancies. Nothing obvious marks them from out from our English clients, except sometimes their accents. They come from the same social backgrounds and share the same mix of opinions and views, hopes, ambiguities and fears. But, whether they acknowledge it or not (some do, some don’t) they carry an additional burden of knowing that, in their own homeland, abortion is illegal; it violates the constitution.

The illegality of abortion at home has consequences even for those women wealthy enough, organised enough and informed enough to travel. It means they have limited opportunity for advice and counselling before they come here, and little access to support and aftercare when they return home. They carry the emotional burden of seeking an ‘illicit’ solution, and the financial cost of the treatment, travel and accommodation.

The practical arrangements often means their treatment is delayed. Many suffer needless anxiety because, in a country when abortion is unlawful, to can be hard to know facts from myths, and to information is trustworthy. The lies about abortion are so rife that BPAS counsellors in Liverpool, who see hundreds of Irish women each year, lobbied for a dedicated website to tell the truth.

Part of truth is that legal abortion is safe and benefits society. Another part of the truth is that Ireland can only exist as a modern society because abortion clinics exist in England to help its citizens manage their reproductive lives. We are the safe, civilised alternative to clandestine, illegal abortion treatments, to abandoned infants and the burdens of forced, unwilling motherhood.

Women in Ireland have abortions but they have them here, while politicians turn away from taking responsibility for a society that allows women to have hopes and expectations of equality, but denies them the means to achieve it and makes them prisoners of their biology.

Something seems unfitting when the European Court challenges the right of a nation to set its own laws. Democracy and the right of nations to self-determination are principles that we abandon at our peril. But when a country fails to address issues that undermine the health and wellbeing of its own citizens, it needs to hear the voices of those beyond its boundaries.

Abortion is a fact of life for women in Ireland. And the Irish Government needs to face that fact.

Ann Furedi is chief executive of BPAS. A version of this article was published in the Independent:

Ann Furedi: Seeking an ‘illicit’ solution carries an emotional cost. Independent, 10 December 2009

Also read:

Irish women take abortion law to court. Abortion Review, 7 December 2009