Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

NI 'miscarriage' case

43 replies

DingbatsFur · 04/04/2016 22:53

Hi,g
I'm not sure how widely reported this case has been outside of NI but I thought this board might fin it interesting.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35962134
Anything that sheds light on NI's poor handling of abortion is welcome but this story is such a sad case.

OP posts:

Report

SpeakNoWords · 04/04/2016 23:12

It's an awful story. It is a huge injustice that had she lived in England/Scotland/Wales she would have been able to have the abortion for free via the NHS or one of the other organisations that provide it. Instead she has been criminalised. It is shocking.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 05/04/2016 00:20

So sad. The only consolation is she got a suspended sentence and the judge sounded frustrated by the absurdity of the situation too.

sashh · 05/04/2016 10:39

It is all over twitter - so sad for a number of reasons, but the law in NI makes my blood boil.

It's sad that she was i this situation, it is sadder still that her housemates called the police.

It is disgusting that a woman (or child) who is British and lives in the UK has no right to a safe medical procedure and that seeking a remedy has given her a criminal record. That if she had got the money together to get to England then she would not be entitled to NHS treatment.

I know abortion support network do a lot of good work but it really is crap that they have to.

Heirhelp · 05/04/2016 16:11

That poor women, having to go through a termination with no medical support and then to be prosecuted for it.

I am currently pregnant with a plannef and wanted child but my pregnancy experience has made me more aware of the impact that an unwanted pregnancy could have on a women. It is so injustice that women in NI do not have autonomy over their own health and life.

DingbatsFur · 05/04/2016 20:49

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35969816
This is a follow up from 'Precious Life'!

OP posts:

PalmerViolet · 05/04/2016 21:33

Precious life are such a bunch of utter arses.

Smyth should have gone down for the harassment charge.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 06/04/2016 00:53

It's sad that she was i this situation, it is sadder still that her housemates called the police

I know. I really can't get my head round that.

JustEat314 · 06/04/2016 07:27

That poor woman.

OneFlewOverTheDodosNest · 06/04/2016 14:12

I've had an abortion and I was friends with a lot of Irish people at the time - I confided in one particularly close female friend about the situation and she decided to recruit the rest of them to try to stop me going through with it.

When I still had the procedure they were foul - if I hadn't been subject to their vitriol I never would have believed it possible from them, or anyone else. I can fully believe that girl's housemates would have wanted her arrested for what she did - I think my former friends would have done the same to me if it had been possible.

VertigoNun · 06/04/2016 14:16

Very sad that someone goes through the process and then witch hunted by so called friends and the state.

JustEat314 · 06/04/2016 14:25

Yeh with friends like that, who needs enemies

notamummy10 · 06/04/2016 14:45

It's shocking!!

Northern Ireland is so behind the rest of the United Kingdom! Actually Ireland in general are backwards. If an Irish woman wants an abortion, she has to travel to England/Scotland/Wales to go through with the procedure then they can't speak out about it.

I'm sorry pro-lifers but abortion is a woman's right; also it's her well entitled choice!

PalmerViolet · 06/04/2016 17:05

The flatmates have spoken out, they tried to coerce her into carrying a foetus she didn't want and then apparently, the young woman failed to show what her flatmates deemed to be the correct set of emotions about it all, so they dobbed her in.

Just when you think your flabber was about as ghasted as it's possible to be...

here

JustEat314 · 06/04/2016 17:31

What a coven of heartless bitches. Shame on them.

VertigoNun · 06/04/2016 17:32

That article hasn't helped their case.

JustEat314 · 06/04/2016 17:34

One of them was twenty years older than the poor girl who took the pills. ''i really tried to help her''. God, makes me mad. I would have felt maternal towards a 19 year old girl in trouble at 38. Not self-righteous bullshit about my own alleged distress.

VertigoNun · 06/04/2016 17:39

The ages made me wonder if theye are family.

PalmerViolet · 06/04/2016 17:41

No, she said she hardly knew the flatmates, makes me wonder if she had come to Belfast to work and gone into a flatshare arrangement.

MadeinBelfast · 06/04/2016 17:53

It makes me so sad, frustrated and angry. Smyth is a vile person, she needs to just let it rest now the case is over.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 06/04/2016 18:15

Incidentally I assume that if there were a vote to leave the EU that women in the Republic of Ireland would no longer be able to travel to the UK for an abortion. It would not affect women in the north but if UK was no longer part of the EU the Irish government probably could stop women travelling.

VertigoNun · 06/04/2016 18:17

Women travelled from Ireland to England, for abortions in the 60's.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 06/04/2016 18:20

But openly ?

Didn't the Irish government try to stop women travelling but were prevented from doing so due to the rules on free movement and provision of services in the EU?

MaudGonneMad · 06/04/2016 18:23

Didn't the Irish government try to stop women travelling but were prevented from doing so due to the rules on free movement and provision of services in the EU?

The X Case in 1992 revolved around this - the Attorney General obtained a High Court injunction to prevent a 14 year old rape victim from being taken to England for an abortion by her parents. The Supreme Court overturned that injunction. There was a referendum the same year on the right to travel for abortion, and the Irish people voted in favour of that right. Nothing to do with the EU, as far as I know.

The rape victim miscarried shortly after the Supreme Court verdict. The AG case came about because her parents contacted the Gardai to see if they wanted DNA samples from the aborted pregnancy to strengthen the case against her rapist.

VertigoNun · 06/04/2016 18:35

Who would know why you were visiting England in most cases? You could be visiting Aunt Nellie or sightseeing.

MaudGonneMad · 06/04/2016 18:36

Well, quite. The only reason the injunction was obtained was because the parents of the child informed the Gardaí beforehand.

But 'going to England' is a very loaded term in Irish culture.

Flip

1 2

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.