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

[MumsnetGuestPosts]

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".

[FarelyKnuts]

Thank you to Issy for the link for setting up a monthly donation.
Living in ireland it horrifies me that we are still in this situation and that this charity needs to exist. My £5 a month might not be much but hopefully every little bit helps.

[FarelyKnuts]

One amazingly generous donor gave £1000. So glad to see so many people care about ALL women.

[YonicScrewdriver]

A few donors citing the shitty Telegraph article as the reason for their investment. Now over £4.5k, well done ASN.

[YonicScrewdriver]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2377295-Sign-in-here-for-Giving-Week-2015-nominate-your-favourite-organisation-charity-or-worthy-cause

By the way, anyone flouncing over MNHQ's choices - it's members who nominate charities - see thread above.

[ASNMara]

I look away for a few minutes (and by look away, I mean, do work for two of my three jobs, spend time with DD and run a parent's coffee morning) and you amazing people have been talking about this for eight pages of comments!

Firstly I would like to say thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for choosing ASN as one of these charities. This is a huge opportunity for us.

Secondly, thank you all for your input into this debate. It has been really interesting to read, and like many of you I think I had tears, laughter and, yes, some annoyance at various times.

I would like to say a few things about some of the comments, and apologies for not tagging people, but:

1. Someone said it's "less expensive to fly to London" - this is only the case when you can book your tickets at certain times, or far in advance. As you get further into pregnancy, the cost of an abortion doubles, and then triples.
   
   
2. the headline and the comic
   Mea culpa, y'all. We found out about this AMAZING opportunity Tuesday afternoon. On Wed at noon, I was on a plane to the US for a conference that I have been organising (see above about the three jobs?)? Mumsnet and JustGiving had a lot of things they needed from us in a short period of time and most of them I did in a state of jet-lagged induced fog. The headline could have been better. Also there was a sub-heading that got cut (or maybe it's below the comic). That said, women with money in Ireland and Northern Ireland with pregnancies they don't want to continue can afford to get abortions. Women without money, can't. Simple as. As for the comic, we were asked to provide two images, one square and one vertical. We had our logo and . . . um . . . um . . . nothing. We had this comic that someone (from Ireland, Republic of) designed for us, for fun.
   
   
3. ASN has never made access to abortion about rape of mental health. AMNESTY and a few others have done this, calling for abortion to be allowed in cases of sex crime and fatal foetal anomaly. ASN does not ask people how they got pregnant or why they need abortions. Why not? Because it's not our business. Our only criteria is financial need and if we have available funds. (Thanks to you wonderful people, we will have available funds for some time, which is awesome). That said - ASN only hears from women in dire straights. Because women with money and other resources don't need to ask strangers in England for money.
   
   
4. Women travelling from Ireland and N Ireland need photo ID, for sure. If they are flying Ryan Air, they need a passport. No exceptions. And many other airlines require a passport of a European ID. These are expensive and not everyone has them. Even one of the ferry lines is cracking down on IDs. And yes, we've helped a number of women who have needed Visas to travel in and out of England. It's not common, but it happens enough.
   
   
5. The MSI Clinic in Belfast can only perform abortions for women under 9 weeks pregnant who can prove that the pregnancy will have a serious and permanent risk to her life or her health as per the NI Law. While that law sounds similar to the law in the rest of the UK, in the rest of the UK there are guidelines as to the circumstances under which women can have abortions. In NI, there's no guidance on what that means, and due to the criminalisation of abortion, any doctor who decides wrong can go to jail.
   
   Now my fingers hurt, and I am sorry for the hugely long post but so incredibly grateful to all of you and to MumsNet for your support, and for the discussion!
   
   ps if any of you are writers with some time on your hands, or designers, or any of the like, PLEASE do feel free to contact volunteer @ abortionsupport.org.uk A lot of you said "thanks" to me for the work but ASN is truly a collaborative effort and wouldn't exist without the amazing people who give their time.

[YonicScrewdriver]

Mara, thank you for posting and your amazing work.

[feelingdizzy]

A couple of things,I am Irish and utterly and totally support a women's right to choose what she does with her own body and have actively been involved in trying to change the law in Ireland. However I also support democracy Irish people have voted not to have abortion, and I do find the whole tone of saving the Irish from themselves more than a bit patronising.

Part of this feeling stems from the lack of understanding of how the Irish system works and that a presumption that it is the same as in England. It isn't put it this way, if abortion was legalised tomorrow in Ireland , you PAY for your medical care, it would not be free there is no NHS.

So poor women still wouldn't have access to abortion here, if abortion was similar to other medical interventions of similar duration/severity it would cost lets say 500-800 euro. This would still mean that it would be cheaper to come to England. This core fact seems to be lost in the rhetoric and poverty would still stop you accessing an abortion as this is not England!

[flippinada]

Mara thank you for coming on here and explaining why you took the approach you did. I think folk often assume that charities have access to a lot of resources, whizz bang PR and so on...a lot of the time they don't, it's just a couple of people in an office.

dizzy sorry for singling you out, but could you explain why you feel this is patronising towards Ireland and Irish women? I don't see this but then I'm not Irish so of course I wouldn't be viewing things from that perspective. My view (as a non-Irish person) is that it's set up to support and help women have access to a service they wouldn't otherwise get.

This is a genuine question, please don't think I'm being snarky.

[ASNMara]

@Feelingdizzy I am American; and I am well used to not having free healthcare. If they made abortion legal in Ireland tomorrow (and found doctors willing to perform them) ASN would still fund women in Ireland (not all of whom are Irish) to have abortions, just like the many, many abortion funds in America (www.fundabortionnow.org) fund women in the US to have abortions. Also, if a group in Ireland wanted to start a fund for people in Ireland to have abortions, we'd happily step aside (and possibly start helping people in the other countries where women contact us from). The fact is, we don't ask people in Ireland to call us for financial assistance. And we HATE having to give it. I do not patronize the people of Ireland and I don't believe anyone involved with ASN - many of whom are Irish - do either. I'm sorry if you feel like we do.

[Birdinthebush]

ASN is a tiny charity , which I have been donating for about a year since I heard Mara speak at a Prochoice event . Last month ASN sent an email to its doners requesting extra cash as they would have had to turn women away. This money will really make a difference , high five Mumsnetters !

[ASNMara]

High ten with MNHQ matched funding! And as flippinada and birdinthebush point out, we're super tiny. We have one part time staff (we crowd funded me a 3.5 day a week salary for 2015) and no office - just a group of volunteers, a mobile phone, a website, a database and wonderful people like you who believe in helping women xxx

[Muddymits]

But really Dizzy the tone of this isn't about saving the Irish from themselves. It's about helping irish women who want help to access health care they need so they can save themselves from unforgiving legislature.

Really early abortions wouldn't need to be very expensive, sure the longer the pregnancy the greater the cost but accessing terminations locally makes them vastly more obtainable for many women who could still access financial support.

Each woman matters, if you support the principle of absolute adherence to the law as enshrined in your country of domicile as opposed to the laws of countries you visit then it makes no sense to support this charity. If you support each woman pregnant and not wanting to be then supporting this charity makes sense.

I do understand the Irish system, hear my parents accents and you will see why... I could share a few awful tales our wider families have suffered as a result of not accessing care they didn't feel they could arrange or afford but really I feel allowing the law to dictate what women can do with their bodies is patronising.

I don't want to see Irish women treated like their rights are less than mine, less than mine would have been had my parents not moved, these women are not lesser they can make their own choices and not be dictated to by laws that do enshrine a lack of respect for women's ability to self determination.

[feelingdizzy]

Flippinada its ok I don't feel singled out, me and ASN it is not the charity I find patronising, I totally agree with what you are trying to do given the current circumstances in Ireland. I totally support what you are trying to do.

My issue and the feeling of being patronised, or perhaps more correctly misunderstood, is two fold, Firstly , a really practical one,is that all the discussion around abortion in Ireland presumes a system similar to that in England and doesn't understand that the problem in Ireland is more that, it is a much larger systemic problem of access to all medical services. I couldn't access abortion even if it was legalised in Ireland, I couldn't afford it. It humbles me to say I haven't been able to take my children to the doctors on occasion as I can't afford it. My children need braces they won't get them I can't afford it. I am a working single parent and the state provides no additional support to me.In reality it would cost me less to come to England and get NHS medical treatment for anything, including abortion if it was legalised. So the discussion around access for abortion needs to look at this practical point .

I have typed this second bit a number of times ,its hard to summarise this point and of course I am not speaking for all Irish people but Irish people voted to have no abortion it is a law I despise and will do anything to change, but where does my right to support what I believe in cross the line of not recognising the will of a nation? I don't know. So although I believe in an absolute right to choose ,I equally believe in my countries right to vote for its own laws.

So the problem of not having access to abortion is a systemic one, not just based on legislation but based on the way the Irish system is set up. Part of solving this is changing legislation, but that would only be half the battle currently that would leave wealthier Irish women to access abortion more easily, but in reality would not make a difference to me practically if I was choosing abortion today. I would still not be able to afford it

[ChickenLaVidaLoca]

Feelingdizzy can I ask do you always support democracy even where what the majority have passed is unjust? Because we do have quite a good example of why that doesn't work in the form of what happened in NI during the first few decades of its existence.

[Enormouse]

feelingdizzy I think you've explained your position really well and you've definitely given me a lot to think about.

It's a difficult situation and NI and ROI do need to be treated as separate entities when it comes to this. But something needs to change.

[feelingdizzy]

Chicken Like I said I'm not sure where my strong opinions on a women's right to choose butt up against my belief in democracy but they do collide.
Honestly my main issue is the pragmatic one I outlined in my post, of course I believe utterly in a woman's right to choose I am a women I have a teenage daughter, however getting legislation still wouldn't give access to abortion to either of us in Ireland, its horrible but its the truth. So the battle for Irish women is to achieve true equality needs to look at the Irish system, and its realities. The current reality is that it would cost less to access an abortion on the NHS even when (hopefully) abortion is legalised.

[feelingdizzy]

enormouse thanks, I have read your posts, and you also make so much sense. I agree things really need to change .It's a tough one, but I have great hope that the law will change in Ireland ,then we can look at changing the health system !

[ASNMara]

ARG can't figure out how to tag people's names. FeelingDizzy, though, I agree with everything you have said - although I hope if abortion were available in Ireland it would cost slightly less than you say. (Hope, hope!) And of course if someone could access close to home it would save on costs like plane tickets and 16 hours of childminding. I am not an expert on abortion law in Ireland - we really keep out of the campaigning aspects although I bet we know people in common through the Abortion Rights Campaign (@freesafelegal) and the Coalition to Repeal the 8th. Has there ever been a straight up referendum on abortion? From what I understood the last vote was long before anyone who can currently get pregnant now was born. But I could be wrong - often am - just look at the headlines I write for guest blog posts ;-)

Also completely understand the frustration with people thinking Ireland is the same as England or the UK.

[ChickenLaVidaLoca]

They don't have to collide feelingdizzy at all, most people don't consider democracy simply to mean doing the wishes of the majority without any safeguards at all. Modern definitions generally also incorporate some protection for the rights of the individual. So to take an extreme example 90% of the population can't vote to kill or enslave the other 10%. Or indeed stop them from having dominion over their own bodies. If you feel, as I'm guessing you do, that a woman has the right to choose what she does with her body and this is a basic right, democracy actually requires that this is respected.

You make a good point about the economic barriers that would still be in place for ROI women if abortion were legalised throughout Ireland though. Although at least poor women close to the border would potentially have better access than they do now. ROI resident women do sometimes manage to access abortion on the NHS now, I don't think this would change if it were available in NI on the same terms as the rest of the country.

[flippinada]

Thanks dizzy. I can see where you're coming from. Fwiw I think it's appalling that there's no free healthcare in ROI.

Access to medical care absolutely shouldn't depend on how much money you have.

[flippinada]

Mara do you mean putting names in bold?

If so, to do that just put an asterisk before and after their name. HTH .

[ASNMara]

Thank you flippinada. When I saw the names in bold I thought it was like @-ing someone on FB or Twitter. (I was last on MumsNet as a parent in 2008 or so - you've come a long way, baby!)

[YonicScrewdriver]

Dizzy thanks for taking the time to explain.

[leedy]

"The country has voted several times democratically to retain the law."

We haven't actually, though, have we duplodon? There was a vote to introduce the 8th back in the 80s, and all the referenda since then have been to tweak the law - any attempts to make the law even more restrictive have been rejected. We haven't had a vote on "the substantive issue" since 1983, which means nobody under the age of 50 or so actually voted on it - it's far from "the will of the people", IMO.

[leedy]

Also am Irish and am delighted that MN is supporting this charity (waves at ASNMara, I've seen you on That Other Social Network Beginning With F). I already make a monthly donation.

As someone who's been protesting etc. about our reproductive rights since the late 80s, I really do not get the ASN hate from Irish people. I've definitely read many articles and threads that tend towards the "the poor benighted Irish women, sure what do they expect living under their terrible religious tyranny, they are all bowed by the crozier, we must save them from themselves" (cue pictures of statues of the BVM and doomy music), but really, the ASN isn't that at all. It's a group that's identified one very practical thing they can do right now to help the women on this island who are most seriously affected by the current legislation. Obviously, as has been pointed out upthread, even if we do get legal abortion it will probably still cost money, but I would still imagine that a medical abortion from a local clinic would be a hell of a lot less expensive and traumatic than having to book flights, take time off work, book accomodation etc. in another country. Also I presume terminations for medical reasons would be free.