Archive for the ‘Abortion’ Category
Legislate for X – Repeal 1861 Act now – Repeal 8th Amendment to Constitution
An Irish Government finally agrees to legislate for abortion – a very significant victory for women, a practicfal example of the power of mass mobilisation politics – NEVER AGAIN
United Left Alliance Statement :
Legislate for X – Repeal 1861 Act now
Repeal 8th Amendment to Constitution
The ULA welcomes the government’s declaration that legislation for the X Case ruling of the Supreme Court in 1992, despite a delay of twenty years, will finally be brought in next year. There is no need to delay however, in the repeal of Sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. This piece of repressive law, retained from the time of British rule, makes abortion a criminal act with severe penalties for women and doctors. We call for the immediate repeal of this legislation. Read the rest of this entry »
Abortion Legislation Again
Dublin Government moves with the speed of a glacier on abortion – mote than 20 years after the X Case.
It will be interesting to see if, as reported in the SBP at the weekend by Pat Leahy and in the Irish Times today, the Cabinet does indeed decide to legislate for limited abortion ‘in accordance with the X case judgement’. The SBP suggests that at today’s Cabinet meeting the legislation will mean the following:
…abortion will be available where a mother’s life is threatened, including by suicide. However, it will be not be legal in cases of rape or where the foetus is unviable. It is expected that the “suicide test” will be as restrictive as possible.
If legislation is decided for many will find it near incomprehensible how the latter two instances of rape and foetal unviability can not be included even in this entirely minimal legislation. But as was pointed out to me yesterday discussing this with activists – and as stated in the SBP –…
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Blue News for Fine Gael – 85% Want X Case Legislation
The latest credible Sunday Business Post Opinion Poll shows the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition would lose office if a General Election was held soon. In addition 85% of people polled favour abortion legislation on the X Case Supreme Court Judgment. As usual Adrian Kavanagh has published an excellent analysis – Paddy Healy and this writer have submitted comments.
Adrian Kavanagh, 1st December 2012
Tomorrow’s Sunday Business Post-Red C poll offers grim reading for Fine Gael, with the party support levels down six percentage points on the previous such poll. This poll puts national support levels for the main political parties and groupings, and relative to the most recent Sunday Business Post-Red C poll on 28th October 2012, as follows: Fine Gael 28% (down 6%), Labour 14% (up 1%), Fianna Fail 20% (up 1%), Sinn Fein 17% (NC), Green Party 3% (up 1%), Independents, United Left Alliance and Others 18% (up 3%). My constituency-level analysis of these poll figures estimates that party seat levels, should such national support trends be replicated in an actual general election, would be as follows: Fine Gael 53, Labour 21, Fianna Fail 36, Sinn Fein 25, Green Party 1, United Left Alliance 4, Independents and Others 19.
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Shame on an Irish Government that will not Legislate for Abortion – Again
Abortion – the campaign won’t go away. National Meeting on Saturday December 8 in the Gresham Hotel, O’Connell Street, Dublin at 12 noon.
Outside The Dail tonight after Clare Dalys Bill was voted down.
Just adding Clare Dalys speech from last night in the Dail
Savita’s Laws
Large Demonstration Outside Leinster House on Wednesday November 21 –
Legislate for Abortion Now
Clare Daly has re-tabled her bill to legalise abortion, which will be debated next
Wednesday. ULA members distributed literature calling for another demo to coincide with the
legislation debate.
Praveen Halappanavar did an interview on RTÉ tonight calling for legalisation of abortion,
and thanking the over 10,000 people who demonstrated in Dublin last Saturday.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1121/howlin-halappanavar.html#video
This crowd was overwhelmingly made up of people in their 20’s and 30’s, a big majority of
them women.
The government is still in a very deep crisis.
The public arena is transformed: see for example this pro-choice article by Vincent Browne
in the Irish Times :
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1121/1224326896233.html?via=mr
International Day of Action for legal Abortion in Ireland
Ireland’s abortion standoff – Al Jazeera Coverage
Ireland’s abortion standoff
A link to Al Jazeera’s coverage is here :
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/irelands-abortion-standoff-0022407
Labour and Fine Gael Must Legislate for the X Case – Gather at the Dáil on November 28, 6pm
Praveen Halappanavar, husband of Savita Speaks – he has little confidence in the Health Services Executive Inquiry established by the Irish State and encourages public mass activity :
Mr Halappanavar also said there were five members of medical staff, as well as a family friend, present in the room with him and Savita when they were told on Tuesday, October 23rd that she could not have a termination of the pregnancy she was miscarrying because “this is a Catholic country”.
Mr Halappanavar also said he believed no inquiry would have been established if his wife’s death had not been brought to public attention.
“I was in India for nearly two weeks and I never heard from the hospital . . . So I had to see people became aware . . . I don’t think there would be any inquiry if there was not the public pressure. I think there would have been an inquest and no one would have known this happened. It is a pity because I thought Ireland would care more for someone so young who died. That let me down. I was not happy about that.”
Asked whether Ms Halappanavar’s parents would come to Ireland for the inquiry or inquest, he said if her father was not “convinced with the investigation” he was “very keen to come over”.
“The law has to change. Maybe Savita was born to change the laws here.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/1120/1224326840862.html
North Kildare Deputy Catherine Murphy makes a telling point about Dáil Votes; discussing the Sinn Féin Private Members’ Motion tabled for decision on Wednesday November 21, Murphy observes :
Catherine Murphy, Chief Whip of the Technical Group, said she would support the motion but expected the response of her colleagues in the group would be “mixed”, with more left-wing members backing the motion while others would not do so.
She added: “It’s not a Private Members’ Motion that we actually require, it’s legislation. I’m disappointed the Minister for Health is talking about it being next year before action is taken.It does look like being some considerable distance down the road. I don’t want it pushed along so that the heat is taken out of the situation: the same set of circumstances could apply to some other woman in the future.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1119/1224326787221.html
An Irish Rising Day, November 17 2012 – “The great only appear great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!” – Jim Larkin
http://www.facebook.com/actiononx2012
The foundations of the right-wing Fine Gael / Labour Coalition are shaking, trembling, and rocking from side to side :
If it falls, good riddance
“Today a statue of “Big Jim” stands on O’Connell Street in Dublin. The inscription on the front of the monument is an extract in French, Irish and English from one of his famous speeches:
Les grands ne sont grands que parce que nous sommes à genoux: Levons-nous.
Ní uasal aon uasal ach sinne bheith íseal: Éirímis.
The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.The slogan, first used on the 18th century French radical paper Révolutions de Paris,[14] also appeared on the masthead of the Workers’ Republic, founded by James Connolly in Dublin in August, 1898. Originally the organ of the Irish Socialist Republican Party, this periodical later became the official organ of the Communist Party of Ireland, which was founded in 1921. The original slogan is usually attributed to Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794), the French revolutionary”
Today :
Mass protest is the only way to win change on abortion
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/savita-protest-dublin-677586-Nov2012/
The November 17 Never Again Dublin Demonstration got huge media coverage in Ireland and abroad.
The Irish Times Reported :
It was headed by a giant banner which read “Never Again”, adorned with images of the 31-year-old Indian dentist.
Organisers of the Dublin march said about 20,000 people had turned out, but a Garda spokeswoman said they estimated the figure to be between 10,000 and 12,000.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1118/breaking3.html
Clare Daly TD spoke powerfully :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=faZj8L5pqGw
See also this statement from the ULA TD’s Clare Daly and Joan Collins :
Labour and Fine Gael bear responsibility for death of woman who was denied abortion
– The crisis is triggered by 7 governments’ refusals to act on the 20-year-old 1992 Supreme Court X Case Abortion Judgment
– The crisis is caused by the preventable death of Savita Halappanavar – 20 TD’s voted for Clare Daly TD’s Bill to implement the X Case Judgment – 111 Members of the Leinster House Parliament – mainly Fine Gael and Labour Government Deputies – voted against – Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 