A pregnant Irish woman and her friend have live-tweeted their journey to an abortion clinic in the UK to highlight Ireland’s strict anti-abortion laws as part of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.
The Twitter account, @TwoWomenTravel, which went live over the weekend, followed the anonymous women as they made the long and drawn-out journey to the UK to terminate a pregnancy.
Abortions are currently illegal in the Republic of Ireland, forcing around 12 women a day – that’s over 4,000 women a year - to journey to the UK to have a safe and legal procedure done. They face prison if they have an abortion in their home country.
Irish women are only permitted an abortion if the mother’s life is in danger – and in the case of rape, incest or fatal fetal deformity, abortions are not permitted at all.
Abortion is also criminialised in most cases in Northern Ireland, with just 16 abortions reported in the country in 2014/2015 – in a country that has a population of 1.8million. 95 per cent of women in need of an abortion in Northern Ireland are stopped from having one, according to the Family Planning Association.
The women shared photos – including from inside the abortion clinic waiting room, and of a bloodied bed sheet in the aftermarth of the procedure – signalling the need for change in the country.
Their journey involved a plane ride and a taxi journey to the UK abortion clinic – before they were told they needed to change to a different clinic. They then travelled to a second abortion clinic for the procedure which was performed after much ‘bated breath’. They were then forced to check into a costly hotel for the night before they could return home.
The women tweeted that the procedure could have been done ‘before midday’ if it was legal in Ireland.
Copying in Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, one tweet read: “Waiting room no. 2. Feel might collapse from exhaustion. No sleep. Friend calm. Brave. #twowomentravel’.
Another read: ‘Forced 2 leave Ireland, @EndaKennyTD joined by more Irish in waiting room,waiting for our loved ones #twowomentravel’.
The women signed off: ‘We wanted to chare the very ordinariness of the situation – we wanted to show it for what it is; a series of waiting rooms, moments in transit, a sequence of tediums protracted by stigma, no monologues, just the facts.
‘We had to travel because out government insists we pretend this isn’t happening. We defy the Irish government to ignore us and we defy our Taoiseach Enda Kenny to avoid this conversation.’
Ireland’s Minister for Health Simon Harris has tweeted to thank the women for raising awareness of the issue. He wrote: ‘Thanks to @TwoWomenTravel for telling story of reality which faces many. Citizens Assembly - a forum to discuss 8th & make recommendations’.
Let’s hope that Ireland’s archaic anti-abortion laws are looked at again – and that positive moves are made soon towards safe and legal abortions for women who need them.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.