Irish women, have you seen this?

[SecondRow]

The HSE removed the word "woman" from their CERVICAL screening pages
I stumbled across this tweet
twitter.com/Salwicklow/status/1305967737563422720?s=20

politely asking them to put woman back in, alongside trans men and trans women, who both get their own special mentions, but they have brushed off the woman who made the original request and are no longer replying.

Here's the HSE pages
www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/cervical-screening/when-you-should-have-cervical-screening/who-should-have-cervical-screening.html

And here's Aoife Martin - no cervix skin in the game inviting followers to mock women for wanting the 99.9% of people who need cervical screening to be named as such by a health service that already has some serious catching up to do before women can believe it has their best interests at heart.

twitter.com/aoifemrtn/status/1306339571790159872?s=20

@ThinEndoftheWedge

Bet their prostate cancer info is full of mentions of women not

Not advocating this obviously - but the utter hypocrisy is clear to see.

Yep

www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/3/acutehospitals/hospitals/ulh/hospitals/uhl/hospdept/deptmed/medicaloncology/rapidaccess/raprostateclinicreferralguide.pdf

Thank ludog

I thought our argument came across well on the show. Even the Teni rep was on side.

That doctor at the end You'd know she lacked experience working out in the community.

From the same account, here's an example of another trans activist being an absolute arsehole towards a woman trying to be as understanding as possible: twitter.com/Salwicklow/status/1306124360747548672

Charming.

The doctor - it was as if as she was speaking she heard herself, and realised how bad it would sound to be advocating for, well,what she started out saying
She of course had a point about trans people accessing healthcare with dignity and courtesy - which is all women are asking for in this case too.

Surprisingly neutral piece in the Irish Times www.irishtimes.com/news/health/hse-defends-removing-references-to-women-in-online-cervical-cancer-information-1.4357438

Thanks for the head's up about Liveline, I'll listen later and add to the emails being sent to the HSE.

As an amusing aside (well to me anyway) I've clearly got myself on a terfblocker list...AM's tweet was unavailable to me

Oh yes, @MotherForkinShirtBalls, I went incognito to get that link Despite never interacting that I know of.

Complaint sent.

Complaint sent here too. Well done, Sarah. It's time Irish women started speaking up on this subject, glad to see it getting some air time on main stream media.

@MotherForkinShirtBalls

Surprisingly neutral piece in the Irish Times www.irishtimes.com/news/health/hse-defends-removing-references-to-women-in-online-cervical-cancer-information-1.4357438

Thanks for the head's up about Liveline, I'll listen later and add to the emails being sent to the HSE.

As an amusing aside (well to me anyway) I've clearly got myself on a terfblocker list...AM's tweet was unavailable to me

So the Marie Keating foundation supported this .

Slightly stilted phrasing about the Marie Keating quote. Reads to me like "not in a position to support the use of woman, because we've already been got to and they'd make our lives hell". Could be just me though!

Also though, the two references or sources the HSE's response claims influenced their policy on gender neutral language, really do not say anything of the sort.

I'm so pleased about liveline but still going to follow this up with the HSE.

Bravo, both Sarahs on Liveline today! You made our points elegantly.

Another article on it amp.breakingnews.ie/ireland/controversy-over-hses-removal-of-word-woman-from-cervical-cancer-information-1018234.html?__twitter_impression=true

Thanks for highlighting this.

I sent my complaint earlier and I've just listened to the radio piece, well done to the Sarah's!!
Great to hear this on radio.
Here's the exact section, plus the later callers for anyone who wants to listen :

www.rte.ie/radio/utils/share/radio1/21836442

This is the thin end of the wedge. Next they will be replacing the word People with Human Beings.

No. Don't worry about that. It is just women who get trodden on to this extent. Considering the scandal about cervical screening a few years ago, where 209 women received incorrect smear test results and 18 of those women died, you'd think they'd pretend to put some effort into simply providing quality healthcare for women.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44659869

It is actually insult on top of injury when women (the only people who actually have a cervix) cannot be stated when transwomen who do not have female biology are directly referenced. Bit of a cuckoo thing going on.

Exactly Cailleach. Such a mis-step by the HSE when they still have a long way to go to gain women's trust.

Begs the question WHO they were doing it for, especially now TENI have confirmed they never wanted this.

Is anyone aware of a male who has turned up for a smear as they don't know if they have a cervix or not?

If you were a doctor what would you say? Pretend and try to carry out the procedure or what

Teni have said they didnt want this? Then who made the decision and why?
That doesnt make sense - especially if there are Teni allies crowing about it on Twitter

Yes, 7Days! They said it on Liveline and they've said it on Twitter:
twitter.com/TENI_Tweets/status/1306593162081624066?s=20

So the HSE went on a loony solo run, nobody likes it or wants it but they're digging in their heels about changing it back.

Oh god, I didn't see this earlier in the day.
I am not surprised though- I am tangentially associated with a health care profession whose national body (in Ireland) has come out with a LGBTQ+ policy which directly says that "men can become pregnant too".

Which is bonkers.
I do not care how you identify, nor how you dress, nor who you kiss, nor to whom you wish to be married.
I defend the individual's right to live out their lives as best they can.

But I also absolutely do care about biological reality; and the horrific history of women in Ireland.

The middle ground is no man's land, strafed by both sides, but I refuse to be dragged into the hate of one side or the other.

I know there have been links to Jo's Trust findings above, but another very simple and useful reference is from NALA on health literacy- "People working in healthcare play an important part in improving health literacy and numeracy by communicating more clearly and making information more accessible to patients."

I've just given feedback on the "what is cervical screening page" on the hse website. You can highlight a section and provide direct feedback.

Sarah, if you are on here thank you so much for standing up for women and our health. I'm sorry you are on the receiving end of so much vitriol as a result.

It is very interesting how the TRA's have reacted. TENI came on air and said they don't have a problem with the word women being put back in. So why are some of the crew still whining? Aoife Martin is referring to Sarah as "Yer Wan", a very condescending tone which smacks of male misogyny. Denise Breen posted a comment on the Irish times article which covered this saying "really irish times? One woman complains and it merits an article?". Christ. From a bunch of people who demand people surrender their belief in biology, free speech, health rights, safety, (the list goes on) to pander to a tiny subset? It would be laughable if it weren't so serious. The ever original Comerford is once more mouthing off about Magdelen Berns. He's also saying the TRA who messaged Sarah directly is now getting death threats because she shared private DMS's. It's only a few months ago that he did the same to a GC woman, who had been messaging someone in good faith.

AM whipped up an ugly fawning mocking mob with the gross misrepresentation of Sarah's approach in that "going apeshit" tweet, which was before Liveline. TENI's coming out as the voice of reason should have taken the wind out of their sails. I have no idea of the inter- trans politics there but Noah Halpin, for example, seemed much more inclined to fall in with the party line (albeit belatedly and without apology) whereas the other... faction... either were completely blindsided by TENI's (possibly brand-new?) stance or were never on the same page as them... I dunno.