New Irish Abortion Law

[alba]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23507923

It's a start, I suppose. I wish they'd gone further, but perhaps if they had done the bill would have been shot down and nothing would have changed.

I wish I could say I was shocked that the so-called pro-lifers are calling this law, which only allows abortion in cases where it will explicitly preserve a life, "a very sad day for our country"; just goes to show how they're really just about controlling women.

[Arete]

Even tiny steps forward will eventually get you where you need to go.

[Anny Nym]

The day Sativa Halappanavar was forced to die in agony through the hands of hypocrite sadists was a very sad day for Ireland. This day however, is just a very sad day for said sadists who seem to get fetish-like pleasure, everytime a woman dies in childbirth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_S ... lappanavar

[lemonhead]

I never thought I would see the day when Ireland has a more progressive and permissive abortion law than Texas. Our new law here will not explicitly allow abortion past 20 weeks "where there is medical consensus that the expectant mother will take her own life over her pregnancy" (from the first BBC article linked in this thread), although it does more generally permit abortion past 20 weeks to preserve the life of the mother.

[Irishy]

The pro lifers are totally against the bill in all it's forms. However, the pro choice half of the population are also divided because of the suicide clause, ie that its open to abuse and so forth and that abortion is not a treatment for depression.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/ab ... 03475.html

With regard to Savita Halapanavar, there are multiple factors to consider in the time from her initial admission to her eventual death. Yes, she got to a point where she needed an abortion but there was a very small window in which it could have been performed with a successful outcome for Savita. The hospital must take the blame for desperately inadequate care (she was left all night without being examined for example) and her initial prescription for antibiotics was woefully inadequate. My SIL (a consultant microbiologist) likened it to giving her a pack of M&Ms. One nurse did say to her that an abortion wasn't possible because of the laws and mentioned the 'catholic country' thing, but at the inquest she explained that she meant it by way of explaining the cultural background to the laws. It is too easy to seize on this case as a sensational example of our draconian laws, but this was an extremely rare instance and who's to say, that even WITH liberal abortion laws, that the idiots treating her would have acted in time.

As to the new laws, only time will tell how it will work. It may be that abortions are extremely rare things here or we may see a massive increase in 'suicidal' women.

[Drina Adams]

As a pregnant woman in Ireland I feel a little safer today. But my health can still be compromised, only my life is taken into account.

[alba]

The pro lifers are totally against the bill in all it's forms. However, the pro choice half of the population are also divided because of the suicide clause, ie that its open to abuse and so forth and that abortion is not a treatment for depression.

I'm actually pleased they included that, as I'm one of those women who would be seriously considering suicide if I got pregnant and there was no other way out; such is my horror of all things pregnancy and childbirth. Sure, abortion isn't a treatment for depression, but if the depression is caused by the pregnancy then it can form a part of it, along with therapy and/or medication. It rather violates a woman's rights to say "you're not *really* upset at being pregnant, you're just depressed" and to insist on trying to treat the depression while ignoring the cause. I'm more inclined to agree with the second doctor quoted in that article, Dr Rhona Mahony; either way, the woman ends up dead, so does it really matter why she dies if that death can be prevented by an abortion?

I don't really understand the concern about the suicide clause being abused; if it is, won't it just mean more women are able to take control of their own bodies? Unless the concern is that it's going to reinforce anti-choicers' beliefs that women who seek abortions are immoral or something, and thus ultimately set back true choice.