Time for a grown-up abortion debate
Pro-choice and pro-life campaigners have been ramping up their campaigns lately. But there’s no use in Ireland burying its collective head in the sand any longer. With women continuing to travel abroad for terminations, the time has come for the status quo to be challenged.
Adrienne Murphy, 05 Oct 2012
“Even if the number of women giving Irish addresses is going down,” stresses Clarke, “the calls to us from women in Ireland seeking help have tripled since we opened in October 2009. The first year we were averaging about seven calls a month; by the second year, 21 calls a month; and now we’re averaging 30 calls a month – although I’ve had the phone for the past two weeks, and in those two weeks I’ve heard from 25 women.”
Clarke attributes the increase to greater awareness of the ASN, and more specifically to the growing numbers of women in Ireland in financial need. Is the ASN able to financially support the increased numbers of women looking for help?
“No,” admits Clarke. “We do the best that we can, and we’re very fortunate in that we have just over a thousand pounds a month that comes in through standing order donations. But that doesn’t go very far when the minimum cost of travelling over and having the procedure is £400.”
According to Clarke, there are women having abortions much later than would be best because of the time that it’s taking them to get the money together to cover the costs.
“According to British Department of Health statistics, the percentage of women who have terminations at over 20 weeks is under 1.6%,” she explains. “But for our clients, the percentage is closer to 14%. Once you go over 20 weeks, the minimum cost for the termination alone is £1,300. Then there’s travel on top of that, plus it’s a two-day procedure so women need somewhere to stay overnight, which is where the ASN also comes in, because women can stay with our volunteers.”
Are there any indicators in relation to these women in particular?
“The women looking for later termination,” continues Clarke, “tend to be (a) women in abusive relationships; (b) very young girls, some of whom may have been raped; (c) perimenopausal women; and (d) wanted pregnancies that become unwanted. Also there are women, usually in couples, with wanted pregnancies, who have found out late about catastrophic foetal anomalies.
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Adrienne Murphy
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