Socialist Party Public Meeting on Abortion

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday February 27, 2002 23:20 by Limerick Socialist Party

NO MORE X CASES LET WOMEN DECIDE VOTE NO ON 6TH MARCH

The governments abortion referendum is a red herring, and does nothing to
deal with the realities of Irish abortion. While they want to restrict
abortions in Ireland, they are quite happy that Britain acts as a safety
valve for women in crisis pregnancy. The Socialist Party is calling on
people to reject this backward-looking referendum and vote No on 6th
March.

Socialist Party spokesperson said: This referendum will not change the
fact that 7,000 women will still travel to Britain for an abortion this
year, or alleviate the trauma of making that decision. It will do nothing
to lessen the risk to their health because they are more likely to have
late abortions as a result of the restrictions here.

If passed, the referendum would re-enforce the difficulty faced by many,
particularly working class women, who have to find up to ?1000 to cover
the cost of travel, accommodation and the medical procedure.

Abortion is legal in Holland, but the numbers of abortions carried out
there is limited because of the existence of a proper sex education
programme and access to contraceptives. Abortion is and will continue to
be a reality faced by thousands of Irish women.
There are real medical, social and economic reasons why women feel that
they cant go through with a pregnancy. Women must be allowed to make their
own decisions. They should have the right to decide to have an abortion in
this state.

This referendum has more to do with trying to get the government
re-elected than dealing with the situations women face and the reality of
abortion in Ireland. But Fine Gael and Labour are also two-faced! While
now calling for a No vote and promising to legislate for the X case, they
refused to do so when they had ample opportunity, ie. when they were in
government.
All of the establishment parties are like a ball and chain holding back
the struggle for womens rights. Their political positions and cowardice
must be challenged.

The Socialist Party has called a public meeting to discuss these issues,
which will take place on Monday 4th March at 8:00pm in An Chist¡n, Halla
Ide, Thomas Street. All Welcome!

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5 reasons to vote NO:
>it will overturn the 'X' case
>it denies the danger of suicide and dismisses it as a real threat to a
woman's life
>it could threaten the health and lives of women by restricting developing
medical practices and limiting the places procedures can be carried out
>it will restrict the powers of Health Boards to take a suicidal rape
victim in their care abroad for an abortion
>if passed, it would be seen as a victory by right-wing groups who would
like to bring Ireland back to the 1950s in terms of women's rights

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What the Socialist Party stands for:
*Support for women in crisis pregnancies and respect for decisions they
make. For the provision of safe abortion facilities through the health
service
*Free access to sexual and reproductive health information services,
including free contraception
*Scrap the mis-named 1983 "Pro-Life" Constitutional Amendment. Deal with
the reality of abortion through legislation
*Free and quick public health care for all

For further comment please phone 086-8403782.

Socialist Party

PO Box 320, Limerick

WWW: http://www.skynet.ie/~sp Limerick: 086 8403782
E-mail: limsp@skynet.ie Shannon: 087 6261679
Fax: 061 213478 UL: 061 202832