Repeal the 8th amendment : Trust Women

AIMS Ireland welcomes the decision of the cabinet to hold a referendum to repeal the 8th amendment.

When a women becomes pregnant in Ireland today there is only one option legally available to her; continue with the pregnancy. It doesnt matter if she is 12 years old and has been raped, our state still expects that she will give birth.

So we have to ask ourselves

Are we going to continue with the paradigms of the past and maintain  misogynistic patriarchal approach to women’s healthcare or are we going to look forward and finally shed the shackles of the past?

Are we finally ready to free ourselves from the stigma and shane that we have so freely heaped on the shoulders of women?

Are we going to stand in moral judgement over other women’s bodies or are we going to trust women to make the best choices for themselves their families and their reproductive health?

Are we going to continue to support a culture of enforced motherhood irrespective of a woman’s physical emotional or psychological capacity  to undertake that task or are we going to promote safe motherhood in which the woman is the final arbiter in her choice to start a family?

Are we going to continue living in the dark ages or are we going to be the generation that finally opens the door to an Ireland that is proud to stand behind a 21 st century maternity service? A service that caters to all of a woman’s reproductive health needs including the safe intervention of abortion?

Speaking yesterday AIMSI Chair Krysia Lynch said “Ultimately this referendum will say more about us as a nation and our collective belief in inclusion choice, human dignity autonomy and control than any other collective decision we have had to make. Repealing the 8 th amendment from the constitution is the final step in the long road of transforming our nation into a modern state.”

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