{"id":1479,"date":"2013-03-27T08:25:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T02:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2014-02-07T11:57:16","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T06:27:16","slug":"persons-of-the-month-the-hundred-who-declared-civil-disobediance-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/persons-of-the-month-the-hundred-who-declared-civil-disobediance-in-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Persons Of The Month: The Hundred Who Declared Civil Disobediance In Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Need an abortion? What you need is a regime of pills. Go to www.womenonweb.org for genuine pills. Photo by Women On Web<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On March 11, we were thrilled to hear that 100 people in Northern Ireland signed an open letter claiming to have had an abortion, or aided someone in an abortion. This act of mass disobedience questions whether or not the state can control a woman’s bodily autonomy or her fertility. These hundred are our persons of the month. Ever since this letter was published many more signatures have been added to the list!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here’s the letter:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Open Letter<\/p>\n

We, the undersigned, have either taken the abortion pill or helped women to procure the abortion pill in order to cause an abortion here in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

We represent just a small fraction of those who have used, or helped others to use, this method because it is almost impossible to get an NHS abortion here, even when there is likely to be a legal entitlement to one.<\/p>\n

We know that Stormont Ministers and the Public Prosecution Service are aware that such abortions have been taking place in the region for some years, but are unwilling to prosecute for a range of reasons, at least partly to do with not wanting an open debate around the issue of when women here should have a right to abortion.<\/p>\n

We are publishing this letter now because of the Givan\/Magennis amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill which we believe is aimed at closing down the debate on abortion here, as much as it is about closing down Marie Stopes.<\/p>\n

We want to emphasise that medical abortions happen in Northern Ireland on a daily basis but without any medical support or supervision. We were delighted when Marie Stopes came to Belfast as it meant that women who are unwell, and therefore eligible for a legal abortion, can access a doctor to supervise what we have done or helped others to do without medical help.<\/p>\n

We live in the only part of the UK that still does not have a childcare strategy. We face huge cuts in children\u2019s living standards if the Assembly passes the Welfare Reform Bill without major amendment. If our politicians showed as much zeal in protecting the lives of children who are already born, perhaps we would have fewer women seeking abortion because of poverty.<\/p>\n

Signed<\/p>\n

Christiane McGuffin, Derry
\nBronagh Boyle, Belfast
\nGoretti Horgan, Derry
\nJudith Cross, Belfast
\nSiusaidh Laoidhigh, Belfast
\nRoisin Barton, Derry
\nVirginia Santini, Belfast
\nJulia Black, Derry
\nNatalie Biernat, Derry
\nAdrianne Peltz, Bangor
\nElizabeth Byrne McCullough, Belfast
\nNaomi Connor, Belfast
\nCatherine Couvert, Belfast
\nCaitlin Ni Chonaill, Belfast
\nHelen McBride, Armagh
\nWendy McCloskey, Derry
\nAlice Lyons, Bangor
\nMaev McDaid, Derry
\nJanet Shepperson, Belfast
\nMary Breslin, Derry
\nAnita Gracey, Belfast
\nGrainne Boyle, Belfast
\nCatherine Rush, Derry
\nYvette Wilders, Limavady
\nDeirdre Kelly, Derry
\nSarah Wright, Belfast
\nSharon Meenan, Derry
\nShannon O\u2019Connell, Bangor
\nCiara Smyth, Belfast
\nShannon Sickels, Belfast
\nJason Brannigan, Belfast
\nConnor Kelly, Derry
\nClaire Hackett, Belfast
\nJames Doherty, Derry
\nJill Letson, Derry
\nNoella Hutton, Derry
\nGlen Rosborough, Derry
\nAnn Harley, Derry
\nRyan McKinney, Belfast
\nKieran Gallagher, Derry
\nJeanette Hutton, Derry
\nJulie Rogan, Derry
\nMatt Collins, Belfast
\nPat Byrne, Derry
\nSusan Power, Derry
\nAisling Gallagher, Belfast
\nBetty Doherty, Derry
\nMel Bradley, Derry
\nEdward Gary Hill, Belfast
\nSha Gillespie, Derry
\nAbby Oliveira, Derry
\nJoanne Butler, Derry
\nMajella Keys, Derry,
\nGerard Stewart, Belfast
\nMaisie Sharkey, Derry
\nOrlagh Ni Leid, Belfast
\nM. Campbell, Derry
\nTiarnan O Muilleoir, Belfast
\nLaura McFeely, Derry
\nBrenda Graham, Derry
\nJanet Shepperson, Belfast
\nDonna McFeely, Derry
\nDaisy Mules, Derry
\nMalachai O\u2019Hara Belfast
\nEileen Webster, Derry
\nV\u00e9ronique Altglas, Belfast
\nDianne Kirby, Derry
\nHelen Quigley, Derry
\nSadie Fulton, Belfast
\nAaron Murray, Derry
\nAoife McNamara, Co.Down
\nEileen Blake, Derry
\nDiana King, Derry
\nPaula Leonard, Killea
\nKitty O\u2019Kane, Derry
\nSara Greavu, Derry
\nEve Campbell, Derry
\nKatherine Rowlandson, Derry
\nJustine Scoltock, Derry
\nEamonn McCann, Derry
\nCatrin Greaves, Belfast
\nAnita Villa, Derry
\nCaolan Brown, Derry
\nAsha Faria-Vare, Belfast
\nChrissie Kavanagh, Derry
\nElaine Power, Derry
\nMaria Caddell, Belfast
\nDavid Stewart Campbell, Lisburn
\nEllie Drake, Belfast
\nLisa Byrne, Derry
\nSiobhan Doherty, Derry
\nStella Green, Belfast
\nJim Collins, Derry
\nGuy Hetherington, Belfast
\nAmos Gideon, Belfast
\nStephen Connolly , Belfast
\nCatriona Acherson, Belfast
\nTimothy Lavety, Belfast
\nEllen Wilson, Belfast
\nRichard Bailie, Belfast
\nManuela Moser, Belfast<\/p>\n

The letter contains signatures of 100 individuals from Northern Ireland who have accessed or helped women to access illegal (under Section 58 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861) abortion pills, such as those available from Women on Web (WoW).<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 11, we were thrilled to hear that 100 people in Northern Ireland signed an open letter claiming to have had an abortion, or aided someone in an abortion. This act of mass disobedience questions whether or not the state can control a woman’s bodily autonomy or her fertility. These hundred are our persons…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":4097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[288,290],"tags":[192,30],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-columns","category-person-of-the-month","tag-ireland","tag-medical-abortions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/blog-featured-image-logo.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3O7nG-nR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1481,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions\/1481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asap-asia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}