Guest post: Abortion Support Network - "In Ireland, motherhood is the punishment for poverty"

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What would you do if the condom broke? If you were pregnant as result of rape? If you had three children but no job? If your wanted pregnancy was diagnosed with a fatal anomaly? What if you lived in a country where abortion is against the law?

"Please help. I've tried everything to try to miscarry... I've been drinking excessively, I've tried throwing myself down stairs, and even tried to overdose. I can't have this child. I don't want it!" – ASN client

In both Northern Ireland (despite being part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland, abortion is almost completely illegal. And as studies have shown, making abortion illegal doesn't stop or even reduce the incidence of abortion. It just stops safe abortion. Or put another way, for those across the Irish seas faced with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, women and couples with money have options, and women and couples without money have babies, or take dangerous and desperate measures.

Abortion Support Network is a tiny charity that provides practical information on how to arrange the least expensive abortion and travel, financial assistances towards the cost of abortion and travel, and accommodation in volunteer homes to women forced to travel from Ireland and Northern Ireland for abortions. ASN does this with a mobile phone, a website, a database, one part-time employee, dozens of volunteers, and amazing individuals who give us money.

We do this is because we think being a parent is an important, fulfilling and difficult job, and not a role that should be forced on someone who doesn't want it. Parenting shouldn't be meted out as punishment to people who have non-procreative sex, but not £400-£2,000 in the bank.

"I used to have a job but it's so expensive to have someone mind the children. My partner has only been able to find work sporadically and we've been rationing food for the kids and have had the electricity turned off we're so short of money. We borrowed money for the flights and that money will need to be paid back too."

There is no typical woman who needs an abortion. ASN has heard from women as old as 51 and girls as young as 13. Women in or escaping abusive relationships, women pregnant as result of rape, women with serious mental or physical health issues. Women with children, women with grandchildren, women with no children. Married couples who felt they had enough children already. Students wanting to continue their educations rather than their pregnancies.

What did these people all have in common? They were pregnant. They didn't want to be pregnant. They are poor. And they never in a million years thought they'd be calling a stranger in England to ask for money to pay for an abortion.

"I was raped last month but never did anything about it as I blamed myself. I have now discovered I'm pregnant. I can't possibly bring a child into this world at this time in my life and I would rather die than go through with this pregnancy. I need to have an abortion but I haven't got the money."

All of the obstacles placed in front of women forced to travel for abortion care mean that very often, they are later in term. While fewer than 1.4% of abortions performed in the UK take place between 20 and 24 weeks gestation, at least 7% of ASN's clients need abortions at that stage. This is due to the delays caused by needing to raise funds, apply for passports, or, even more time-consuming, visas. Tragically, more than ten ASN clients have arrived in England only to find that they are over the legal limit for a termination – sometimes by as little as one day.

"I have several children including one who is quite ill. My husband abandoned us and I've never left my children before. I was saving up the money but am now past 14 weeks which means the price has gone up from £350 to £600, which seems impossible. If I am not able to do this before I am 18 weeks and six days the cost doubles to over £1,300. I just cannot see any way to do this. I had no idea that women in Ireland had to go through this."

ASN is a small organisation trying to alleviate an enormous problem. The Department of Health may be reporting falling numbers of women travelling to England for abortions, but calls to Abortion Support Network have increased year on year, from 89 in our first full year to 552 in 2014, an increase of 520%.

"I have two very young children and the youngest was diagnosed with a severe disability. I am so scared this baby will have the same or worse and either way I can’t handle caring for another child."

The women and couples who contact ASN are the living embodiment of the cost of making abortion illegal. We don't ask how a pregnancy occurred or why an abortion is wanted. We don't even ask if the caller is a woman. Our only criteria for funding is financial need and whether or not we have money in the bank. Abortion Support Network is a sticking plaster on this situation, not a solution. While groups like Abortion Rights Campaign Ireland and Alliance for Choice campaign for much needed law reform, we are providing women with the help they need most immediately: money.

"I never understood before how being able to have an abortion could be empowering, but now I do".

Thanks, Yonic. I'm still surprised there has been no major legal challenge.

I feel that access to abortion should not depend on wealth of the mother. There should not be one law for the rich and one law for the poor. A law against abortion should either be enforced for all or scrapped. Personally I feel the laws controlling abortion in England have a reasonable balance between the rights of the foetus and the mother. I hope that one day both northern and southern Ireland reform their laws on abortion.

Peoples in northern and southern Ireland have the right to self determination. Eire is independent from England and Northern Ireland has devolution under the Good Friday agreement. They have the right to make laws that are different from England. I am not sure its the place of a bunch of overseas people to undermine the laws of a democratic country just because we don't like their laws.

" Northern Ireland has devolution under the Good Friday agreement."

Ah, thanks RT. ItsNot was referring to NI rather than Eire so this helps.

There are no different laws for the rich and for the poor - the issue is around having sufficient funds to travel to a country where abortion is legal and to be able to pay for that abortion.

The independent part of Ireland should be called that - "Ireland" or if it is necessary to avoid ambiguity "Republic of Ireland" Note Eire.
(I've recently written a report on care provision in Ireland and know this is important) I agree the abortion law in this country is about right. having reflected my reservations are that I would not want to send money that enabled a woman to have an abortion if she would have preferred to have money to help her have and keep the baby. Yes, all the reasons cited by INAPAYT are very valid.

I have a huge problem with the linking of rape, suicide and abortion. it is wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start. I'm actively involved in the campaign to repeal the 8th in the Republic of Ireland (the law that makes abortion illegal) and I support the general idea of support for women in poverty to obtain safe abortions but I don't like the way this charity presents its issues.

Abortion is not a cure for suicidal depression, whether you were raped or not. The fact it comes up as one is much more about the way raped women are seen as "innocent" and there's a raft of issues with that. It also goes against the very obvious fact that what you need if you are suicidal and pregnant, regardless of how you got pregnant, is high quality mental health support.

I'm glad people have raised their misgivings about this charity. I'm not sure that sending a packet of pills to a desperate suicidal woman who has contemplated drinking bleach is the answer.

Vivienne, that is a misrepresentation of ASN who help women travel to the UK for abortions and to fund those abortions. They do not send packets of pills.

But they point them in the direction where such pills are obtainable. And I also agree with the point of legalilty of abortion in Eire and Northern Ireland. Campaign for a change in the law is fine. But I don't approve of this charity and what it does. Sorry.

Well no one who approves of accessible abortion will like this charity. No one who wants a woman to be able to decide for herself whether continuing a pregnancy is a good thing for her to do.

Me, I support the right of any woman to make those choices for herself and whilst women are restricted from accessing care in the UK because they lack funds then I believe this charity does vital work.

I see a real horror in being forced to grow and birth a baby you don't want and you see the consequence of this in Ireland's god awful care system.

Incidentally mothers who choose to terminate because of financial problems, they aren't stressed about buying a pram. They are aware of hundreds of thousands that the life time costs of your children amount to, the lost work, lost promotion, dented pensions, the childcare etc. I don't see any charity providing this.

There are two seperate legal duristictions in Ireland and both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland abortion is practically impossible. It is up to the citizens in both these countries to make change happen through the ballot box. Democracy exists both sides of the Irish boarder. Is it really the place of predominately English mumsnetters to help Irish women break the law of their land? What gives us the right to judge the morals of a different country?

Whatever you think of abortion and a women's right to choose, it has to be remembered that the Irish wanted freedom from English interference.

Anyone has the right to judge, there are plenty of laws I have campaigned against as they are generally seen to be an abuse of human rights. This is too, and if women wish to help other women who want that help to be free of a system that has enshrined their inequality I am very happy with that.

I am perfectly happy to donate funds to campaigns helping women in other countries; why not this one? And plenty of those countries have democracy; doesn't mean women there aren't getting a shitty deal.

If you aren't, don't donate

Vivienne, as far as I know ASN supports women going to british clinics and accessing abortions, many of which need to be surgical owing to delays in getting the money and arranging travel. So not sure what your point is?

People have read comments from MNetters in NI who are pleased with MN's decision to support this charity, haven't they?

Dupludon Of course abortion isn't a cure for suicidal depression, but continuing with an unwanted pregnancy can have a very detrimental effect on your mental health even if you were well beforehand.

Afaik, as members of the EU, Irish women have the right to travel to the uk. Are there other things Irish people could do in the uk which are a crime there but not here that could result in prosecution at home although there was no crime in the jurisdiction of the action?

Would you also refuse a hire car to a Saudi woman visiting?

Wow ReallyTired do you think we're not trying to make change happen? We are but we are fighting against years and years of religious indoctrination and it is no easy feat. We are trying our damnedest to make the change happen but all the while women are continuing to find themselves in a position where they need to terminate a pregnancy, for many reasons.

I'm not even going to comment on the last line of your post.

Sorry Duplodon for misspelling your name.

Oh and Amnesty considers the Irish abortion regime to be one of the most restrictive in the world.

Thanks, democracy.

I don't think you can really call lack of access to an abortion an abuse of human rights in this context.

• The country has voted several times democratically to retain the law. I actively campaign for removal of that law to allow for abortion in Ireland, but that doesn't mean that I don't recognise that the law is not one that was imposed by some sort of dictatorship, but by democratic majority.

• It's less expensive to fly to London than travel from Cork to Dublin by train, so travel is not nearly as inaccessible as this makes out.

• If abortion were available in Ireland, it would be in private clinics as non-emergency and routine care is paid for at the point of contact so having to pay for an abortion clinic is a moot point.

Interestingly though, no one internationally is campaigning that it's an abuse of human rights that us poor Irish have to pay for our healthcare, or have no perinatal psychiatric inpatient units for suicidal women. There are SO many deserving charities in respect of all sorts of pressing issues in the world, but this just seems a bit of a political choice, and I'm uncomfortable with the whole "poor backward Irish women" thing in the light of recent controversial MN threads on the topic.

Duplo, I think MNHQ takes nominations if you wanted to suggest any for next year?

As with woolly hugs last year, several MNetters have benefited personally from the work of this charity and others support its aims; I assume that's why it was nominated.

Ps I think acquiring a passport is probably an additional cost along with clinic fees.

The only person making reference to "poor backward Irish women" is you duplodon. The fact of the matter is this, women in Ireland, North and South, need abortions. They cannot access them in their own country and some cannot afford to travel to England where they can access the service they need. ASN step in to help bridge this gap. There is no judgment of morals on this thread, simply people trying to help support the current situation as it stands.

Plus transport from airport to the nearest abortion clinic. And flights aren't that cheap if you are booking them at the last minute.

In Ireland, motherhood is the punishment for poverty

I am appalled this was considered an appropriate title. Disgustingly innaccurate and inflammatory. Makes the Daily Mail look like bastions of responsible reporting.

If it were a charity for just NI I'd be fully behind it. If it were being sponsored by an Irish parenting site, I'd be more behind it - but with the caveats that I really don't agree with making access to abortion about rape or mental health. The context is totally different here, and I think it's uncomfortable, but am aware that's my opinion and not going to be shared by everyone.

BabyfacedAssassin, there have been several threads in the last two months that led me to make that comment where there has been a lot of paternalism about poor backward Irish women. So it's in that context I made my comment. And, as squiggleirl says, there is a pretty big signpost that this is on the agenda:
"In Ireland, motherhood is the punishment for poverty"
Quite loaded, really.