Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Pro Choice Campaigning Meeting

A 'Pro Choice Campaigning' meeting will be held at 3pm on Saturday 27th January in the Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin 2. The meeting is open to all and is hosted by Labour Youth.

'Pro Choice Campaigning' is intended to be a working meeting as opposed to one involving speakers and questions. There will be a series of workshops designed to produce realistic and practical ideas about how we can advance the pro-choice campaign in Ireland today.

It's time to put the issue of abortion rights in Ireland back on the agenda. Abortion is an issue that Irish politicians and newspapers don't want to talk about anymore. In comparison to the years surrounding the referenda, column inches in the press devoted to the issue of reproductive rights have diminished remarkably. But the situation in Ireland has n't changed. The women who travel daily from this country to the UK for abortions continue to be ignored. Ireland is maintaining its position as one of the strictest countries in the world in terms of reproductive rights- only the Vatican and Malta rival Ireland at European level.

Successive Irish Government's have failed to legislate along the lines of the X Case decision, which ruled that abortion should be allowed in cases where the woman's life was in danger. As a result, doctors are left in an unacceptable position, unsure of whether they are legally able to perform a termination in any cases at all.

The situation will never change unless those of us who care about these issues become involved in a broad campaigning movement working for women's rights in Ireland.

This will be a functional meeting, using working groups and facilitators designed to produce practical and workable ideas rather than merely a string of speakers. A diversity of tactics, ideas and approaches is what is hoped will be produced by this meeting, in order to establish a broad based campaign aimed at improving and increasing reproductive rights in this country.

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