Josepha Madigan: The case for Yes to repealing Eighth

It’s 2018, and I live in Ireland. Growing up in a large Catholic family, I always thought the world around me was relatively fair to women. It’s only as I matured that I realise it’s not. Whatever the reason, the women in our country have been subjected to unspeakable horrors. There have been mother and baby homes where women, who became mothers out of wedlock, were shamed into cold institutions where there was no kindness, no comfort and no understanding of their situation.

These mothers were simply shameful secrets to be kept out of sight and out of the Irish psyche: out of sight, out of mind. Mass baby graves were found in Tuam and other places in Ireland.

This country treated our women with utter contempt and a neglectful disregard. Women in this country have had to battle for the right to vote (not to mind be a parliamentarian), to collect their own children’s allowance, obtain access to domestic violence protection orders, buy contraceptives and the right to even work outside the home.

I believe we are at a pivotal moment in the history of this country, for our wives, sisters, daughters, nieces, aunts, cousins

Add to that the fact that we didn’t have the right to refuse to have sex with our husbands and it becomes a veritable nightmare. It’s as if by our very female nature we are somewhat of a sub-species.

Eighth Amendment is a declaration of tenderness at heart of the Constitution

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The Eighth Amendment puts the health of pregnant women in jeopardy

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Irish Times view on EU-US relations

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Irish Times view on protecting bathing water quality

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Humiliating

We can see the pattern over the decades. We have endured the scandal of the hepatitis C, the #metoo movement, high profile rape trials, the cervical cancer scandal and now the repeal, I hope, of the Eighth Amendment.

The ignominy of our shared private female reproductive organs being discussed ad nauseam online and in the mainstream media is humiliating and degrading.

Often we associate a feminist with someone who is a bra-burning militant with a hatred of the male species that is palpable in its ire. However, I am a big fan of men (I’m married to one and I have two sons) but I am a feminist. Increasingly so, and I am protective over our Irish women.

Now, as campaign co-ordinator for Fine Gael for the Eighth Amendment, I am hoping to be a voice to all those women out there who squirm when we hear our collective intimate female anatomy being dissected and discussed, yet again. This has to stop.

I believe the Ireland I grew up in is ready for change. I believe we are at a pivotal moment in the history of this country, for our wives, sisters, daughters, nieces, aunts, cousins.

We are colluding in the judging of our friends and family by retaining the Eighth Amendment

I was living here in 1983 also, but I was too young to vote. More is the pity, I would never have voted that the Eighth Amendment be inserted into our Constitution. An issue so sensitive and delicate as this does not belong in the Constitution.

It came in at a time, in the early 1980s, where there were three general elections in 18 months, and that political instability allowed the lobby groups to exploit it and call for a referendum. I believe now we can right a wrong.

Pretend

I believe that this amendment is only regulating for what is already in existence even though we pretend to ourselves that it doesn’t. We don’t live in a utopian world. Unfortunately, 3,265 women left Ireland in 2016 to access abortion, many because of fatal foetal abnormalities.

Whether or not we agree with their decision is not the point. The point is the Constitution’s judgment of them (and, by the way, its hypocrisy on banning it and facilitating travel simultaneously) does nothing whatsoever to prevent abortions happening.

We are colluding in the judging of our friends and family by retaining the Eighth Amendment. I believe we want compassion in care and no more tragic and unnecessary Savita Halappanavar cases. One death caused by the Eighth amendment – and the bind it puts doctors in – is a death too far.

I know we can do better. I know we will vote Yes on May 25th.

Josepha Madigan is Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, and leader of Fine Gael's campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment