Painful activism pays off for Ireland's abortion campaigners
Three decades ago, Anne Marie Keary was threatened with jail, burdened with legal bills and grappling with abuse and threats that poured down her phone, because she had published phone numbers for British abortion clinics in a student welfare guide.
In the pre-internet era, that information was a lifeline for women who did not want to continue with pregnancies. The desperation of those trying to find it shaped Keary’s life.
Abortion will not immediately be available to women within Ireland.
The eighth amendment – article 40.3.3 of the Irish constitution – which prohibited abortion, will be replaced with a clause stating: “Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.”
The Irish government is planning to bring legislation before the Dáil, providing for abortion on request up to the 12th week of pregnancy, with a three-day “cooling off” period before medication is administered.
The prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said he wanted the new law to be enacted by the end of the year.
Between 12 and 24 weeks, abortion will be available only in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, a risk to a woman’s life or a risk of serious harm to the health of the mother. After 24 weeks, termination will be possible in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.
There will be provision for conscientious objection among medical practitioners, although doctors will be obliged to transfer care of the pregnant woman to another doctor.
She was born in Ireland, a country where contraception and divorce were illegal, and abortion practically unmentionable, then came of age in the shadow of a 1983 referendum that effectively barred the termination of any pregnancy.
“Really the fight was not even about abortion [in Ireland] at that time so much, it was about information,” Keary said of her legal and political battles as a student union welfare officer in 1988.
So when Ireland voted by a landslide on Friday to allow safe, legal abortion, she was overcome with emotion. “I never thought I’d see the day. When I heard [the exit poll results], I cried. I howled,” she said. “It was one of the best days of my life.”
For Keary and so many others, Friday was the culmination not only of months of campaigning to get out voters in this election, but years pushing for change, and decades of often painful activism.
“The referendum win is on the back of 35 years of really courageous women coming out against the system, with probably a high cost,” said Denise Charlton, head of fundraising at the Together for Yes campaign.
For many older women, the fight began in 1983, with a referendum to pass the same eighth amendment to Ireland’s constitution, which was the subject of Friday’s vote. It put the life of a pregnant mother on an equal footing with the foetus she carries, making it impossible to legislate for abortion.
Sheila Aherne’s memories of being spat at by her neighbours, called “murderer” and baby killer during that campaign have barely faded.
“I’m now 59 years of age, and I still fear what is behind the doors,” she said, although the experience, and years of failed and difficult campaigns didn’t put her off a lifetime of activism.
“It was decades before I ever voted for anything that ever went through. You just have to keep going, if you believe something is right.”
As supporters of a repeal celebrated the result announced on Saturday, many of the younger voters and campaigners were keen to pay tribute to the women whose work and sacrifice had paved the way for the landslide before they were even born.
Several came to thank author Evelyn Conlon, who had joined the crowds waiting for official results at Dublin Castle, carrying photos of herself protesting in 1983.
“It’s taken a long time to have that changed, but today is about us having grown up,” she said. “We’re extraordinarily happy today after all those years of work.”
Evelyn Conlon who has been campaigning for 38 years for women’s fundamental human rights- thanking @SimonHarrisTD and he thanking her. pic.twitter.com/Y8iDEJHDp2
— Rosanna Cooney (@RosannaCooney) May 26, 2018
Katharine Bulbulia was a senator when the eighth amendment was passed; she defied her party whip for the only time in her political career to vote against it.
She went on to chair the country’s crisis pregnancy agency, and tussle with the Catholic church over simply handing out information about abortion providers in Britain, but for years real change on abortion appeared beyond reach.
“We seemed to be taking such a long time, and making so many false starts,” she said from her home in southern Waterford county.
Weeks canvassing had left her cautiously optimistic ahead of this referendum, but the scale of the landslide overwhelmed her. “I am delighted, elated, thrilled. I just can’t believe it, the magnitude of it,” she said. Even her home area, relatively conservative and largely rural, had supported change.
One of her few regrets is the allies in the fight who didn’t live to see the change; one former legislator Monica Barnes died just a couple of weeks before the referendum.
Men who stood by women in their fight were also celebrating, and being celebrated after the vote. Frank Crummy, now 81, worked at one of Ireland’s first family planning clinics, and was at Dublin Castle with his granddaughter to celebrate a day he never thought he would live to see.
Frank Crummy has been campaigning for women's rights for decades.
He is eagerly waiting today's result in Dublin Castle with his granddaughter Fiona McEvoy, and believes we're looking at another watershed moment for Ireland. pic.twitter.com/EdFDzHjvtf— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) May 26, 2018
As younger Irish citizens hailed them as inspiration, the veterans said they were happy to be able to pass on the baton. “Yesterday standing in Dublin castle and looking at all the youngsters, I felt the future is safe in their hands.”
They hope the experience of another sweeping victory this week, three years after a vote to legalise gay marriage sealed the end of Catholic control of Irish society, will inspire them to keep pushing for more reform.
“They have won two referendums and seen incredible social change,” said Charlton, from Together for Yes. “It is so fantastic, to know you can change the system when there is something wrong.”