This coming Friday, the 25th of May 2018, the residents of Ireland will be given the opportunity to have their say and potentially change the current laws surrounding termination.
At present, the termination of a pregnancy is illegal in Ireland unless in extreme circumstances where the mothers life needs to be saved. This means that should a woman or girl become pregnant through rape or incest, or if the unborn baby is suffering from any foetal abnormality; fatal or non fatal, then they are not legally able to have a termination in Ireland. Due to this, most will travel to the UK to seek terminations or order termination pills online which puts them at risk.
Currently the life of the unborn is protected by Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution; also known as the Eight Amendment. If the Eight Amendment is repealed by the Irish population then new legislations will allow terminations before 12 weeks in certain circumstances. If there's a risk to the woman's life then this can be extended up to 24 weeks; any terminations past this gestation will only be performed due to fatal foetal abnormalities.
From my own stance, I am very much pro-choice; it is my body so I should be able to have the freedom with what to do with it. Although, whilst I am pro-choice I do not believe in the use of termination as a form of contraception. To be quite frank, if you can't be bothered to use any contraception and end up with numerous terminations then, as extreme as it may sound, I do think that sterilisation should be the next step.
Personally, as hard as it may be for some to read, I would terminate a pregnancy for certain reasons; rape, fatal foetal abnormalities and if there was a risk to my mental or physical health.
At present, the termination of a pregnancy is illegal in Ireland unless in extreme circumstances where the mothers life needs to be saved. This means that should a woman or girl become pregnant through rape or incest, or if the unborn baby is suffering from any foetal abnormality; fatal or non fatal, then they are not legally able to have a termination in Ireland. Due to this, most will travel to the UK to seek terminations or order termination pills online which puts them at risk.
Currently the life of the unborn is protected by Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution; also known as the Eight Amendment. If the Eight Amendment is repealed by the Irish population then new legislations will allow terminations before 12 weeks in certain circumstances. If there's a risk to the woman's life then this can be extended up to 24 weeks; any terminations past this gestation will only be performed due to fatal foetal abnormalities.
From my own stance, I am very much pro-choice; it is my body so I should be able to have the freedom with what to do with it. Although, whilst I am pro-choice I do not believe in the use of termination as a form of contraception. To be quite frank, if you can't be bothered to use any contraception and end up with numerous terminations then, as extreme as it may sound, I do think that sterilisation should be the next step.
Personally, as hard as it may be for some to read, I would terminate a pregnancy for certain reasons; rape, fatal foetal abnormalities and if there was a risk to my mental or physical health.
When we found out we were expecting Florrie, the chat did happen. We realised that she had been conceived within the "risk" time frame of the Zika Virus after returning from Barbados. We decided that if the 12 week scan showed any abnormalities that would be deemed as fatal, then we would terminate.
Thankfully our scans all showed that she was completely healthy, something of which I will always be grateful for.
So, will you be repealing the Eighth Amendment? I know that if I could vote then it would be a YES for the new legislations.
No comments
Post a Comment