Over the 12 days of Christmas, HuffPost UK is hosting a series of blogs from people at the centre of 2018′s biggest news stories. Today, Together for Yes campaigner Sarah Monaghan reflects on Ireland’s historic abortion referendum and what it means to the country’s women. To find out more about the series, follow our hashtag #HuffPost12Days
As I wrote this we learned the President of Ireland has just signed the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 into law. We did it. We repealed the eighth amendment and abortion services will be free, safe and legal from January 2019. It was an incredible day for all who have worked tirelessly on this issue, social change implemented from the ground up. It has been a long journey: an often torturous movement carried by the grassroots, the far from ‘ordinary’ women and men of Ireland, for months, years and decades. There were times when it appeared impossible, the odds insurmountable, the task of driving an appetite for change amid apathy threatened to swallow us whole.
But it did not. Instead we grew strong and defiant and on 25 May, we changed history. The yes from the Irish public was deafening and groups of activists, supporters and volunteers all over Ireland breathed a sigh of relief. It had all been worth it: the sleepless nights, the missed meals, the abandoned family and friends, the tough decisions and compromises, the cruelty and lack of empathy from those campaigning for a no, which we bore with a smile and carried on. It had all been worth it because there was something bigger than all of us at stake, a collective goal that united and strengthened. At the centre of all the arguments it came down to something very simple: A pregnant person’s right to choose. A person’s life, a person’s future, a person who should be cared for at home and not exiled abroad.
As we move into 2019 we know that it won’t be perfect. We know the legislation is flawed. It contains barriers to care that will impact negatively on pregnant people. We know the implementation of abortion healthcare will not be flawless from day one. But we also know that women and pregnant people are waiting and that we need to remember those who are at the centre of this issue once again. They voted yes in May on the promise that services would be available from January 2019 and we are pleased to see this promise being delivered on.
At the Abortion Rights Campaign we will continue to work, as we have done every day since 2012 and every day since 25 May. We know from our international colleagues that there are few holidays in pro-choice activism and that a retirement from reproductive rights is impossible. We are committed to continuing to work toward patient-centred care which retains a focus on the woman and whatever choices she feels are right for her and her family. We are determined to see the healthcare which we deserve realised for all those who voted Yes in May and we will bring all of the knowledge and experience of the years past to bear in the realisation of this goal.
Our groups all across Ireland will continue to support women, particularly those in rural areas whose pathways to care will be restricted. Stigma around abortion has not disappeared over night and we will continue to work to educate and normalise what is a private healthcare procedure. We will continue to work toward the three year review of the legislation to close some of the gaps which contradict the promise of free, safe, legal abortion access.
We will continue to support all those who fall outside of this legislation, those often already most marginalised who are still forced to travel, those who do not have the PPS number to make their care free, those who struggle to identify a willing GP in a rural community, those living in domestic violence who struggle to leave the house once, and then again in three day’s time to attend their second appointment. We will continue to listen and support. We will look to our sisters and colleagues in Northern Ireland and stand in solidarity with their struggle to attain access to abortion, just as they stood united with us. It appears to be the best kept secret in the United Kingdom that there is no abortion access in Northern Ireland, when it has been available in England since 1967. Groups travelled across the border to help us campaign in May and we will do the same in return. Reproductive rights cannot have a hard border.
On 26 May, the young women of Ireland walked the streets knowing their power, knowing that the country had changed forever and that that change belonged to them. We will defend that change with everything we have left, we are never going back. We look to 2019 with excitement and expectation for the many ways in which these people will continue to drive social progress.
Sarah Monaghan is co-convener of the Abortion Rights Campaign and a founding member of the Together for Yes campaign
