Death anniversary of Savita Halappanavar: Irish activists pop abortion pills and defy ban
Socialist MP Ruth Coppinger along with 30 other pro-choice activists, bought tablets from Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast and popped them in Dublin to defy the continued ban on most terminations in the Republic.
The Socialist Party’s Ruth Coppinger travelled to Northern Ireland on Tuesday along with 30 other pro-choice activists to buy abortion pills. The Irish state still bans abortion pills.
Last year, the republic’s customs service seized more than 1,000 tablets that were posted from Britain and Europe to Irish women seeking to terminate their pregnancies. The activists said the pills are ‘a safe, non-surgical abortion pill’ available and defy Ireland’s medieval abortion laws which criminalize women.
A candlelight vigil and silence will later be held in memory of the Indian dentist Savita, who died from septicaemia after she was refused a termination as she miscarried.
Pro-choice activists took the train from Dublin to Belfast and brought back safe, non-surgical abortion pills banned by the Irish state. Activists said, ‘The action takes place two years after the death of Savita Halappanavar and months after the effective torture of another pregnant woman, a migrant rape victim who could have been given these pills.’ Rita Harrold of ROSA (Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity) said thousands of women in Ireland are forced to make a difficult and expensive journey to abortion clinics in England.
‘Yet, a safe, less costly option could be provided through medical abortion pills prescribed by our own GPs, as happens in many other countries,’ she said. ‘Women had to break the law in the 1970s in the fight for basic healthcare in the form of contraception.
The Socialist Party’s Ruth Coppinger travelled to Northern Ireland on Tuesday along with 30 other pro-choice activists to buy abortion pills. The Irish state still bans abortion pills.
Last year, the republic’s customs service seized more than 1,000 tablets that were posted from Britain and Europe to Irish women seeking to terminate their pregnancies. The activists said the pills are ‘a safe, non-surgical abortion pill’ available and defy Ireland’s medieval abortion laws which criminalize women.
A candlelight vigil and silence will later be held in memory of the Indian dentist Savita, who died from septicaemia after she was refused a termination as she miscarried.
Pro-choice activists took the train from Dublin to Belfast and brought back safe, non-surgical abortion pills banned by the Irish state. Activists said, ‘The action takes place two years after the death of Savita Halappanavar and months after the effective torture of another pregnant woman, a migrant rape victim who could have been given these pills.’ Rita Harrold of ROSA (Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity) said thousands of women in Ireland are forced to make a difficult and expensive journey to abortion clinics in England.
‘Yet, a safe, less costly option could be provided through medical abortion pills prescribed by our own GPs, as happens in many other countries,’ she said. ‘Women had to break the law in the 1970s in the fight for basic healthcare in the form of contraception.