IRSP: On the Right to Choose -- The Irish Voice

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Friday, November 30, 7:09:13
Author: IRSP
Subject: IRSP: On the Right to Choose

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

30 November 2012
Irish Republican Socialist Party

On the Right to Choose

At the Irish Republican Socialist Party's first Ard Fheis in 1975, we
were the first political party in Ireland to support a woman's right
to control her own body and choose abortion, a position unanimously
reaffirmed by delegates to this year's Ard Fheis. We call for
immediate legislation to make abortion available, free of charge and
on demand, through the health services on both sides of the border.
We believe that any position short of that is insufficient and
reactionary in 2012.

Historically, women were viewed as the property of first their
fathers and then their husbands. They had no authority over their own
bodies, and they were taught that their highest duty was to
reproduce, regardless of their own wishes. This view persists today,
where paternalistic states, supported by reactionary religious
bodies, pass laws to control what women can and cannot do with their
own bodies. The right to choose abortion is the right of a woman to
have sovereignty over her own body, and to make decisions and choices
about her body. Neither church nor state has a role to play in
regulating women's bodies.

We believe it is a sad indictment of Irish society in 2012 that a
woman�s right to choose is still being denied. Every week almost one
hundred women are forced to leave this island under a cloak of
secrecy to receive a medical procedure that should easily be carried
out, free from society's imposed shame, in any hospital in Ireland.

The death of Savita Halappanavar in Galway in October should never
have happened. Despite her desperate appeals for an abortion during a
miscarriage, she was denied the procedure and she died. We support a
woman's right to choose abortion. It's not enough to only
theoretically allow it when the woman's life is at risk. If a woman's
right to control her body and make medical decisions is to mean
anything, she must have the right to choose abortion under any
circumstances.

We also believe that contraception must be available to all women,
free and on demand, so that they have complete control over their
reproductive choices. To those who oppose both abortion and
contraception, we say that you are hypocrites whose anti-woman agenda
is plain to see.

The right to choose an abortion and determine one's own future is
part of a much larger struggle to empower women to take control of
their own destinies and destroy the contradictions in Irish society
that do not allow women to legally choose an abortion. Women must
have this choice. We must struggle to win this right, and redress the
imbalance in power between the genders, as these are battles in our
war to separate church and state, and create a truly democratic,
equal, and secular society.

As revolutionary socialists, we recognize that this requires more
than just reform, it also requires a revolutionary change in society.
Full gender liberation for all people can only happen if existing
social institutions are abolished and the archaic values they
represent are swept aside with them.

Reactionary religious institutions have exerted their influence to
oppose the reproductive rights of women, be it contraception or
abortion. Women must be free from the imposition of reactionary
beliefs, and the state should not exist to impose religious diktat on
anyone. An oppressive agenda towards women is very much in play in
Ireland, with the Catholic Church, right-wing political parties, and
the reactionary elements within Irish society preparing for a battle
that, if won, would even further stagnate the struggle for woman's
liberation in Ireland. All progressive forces in Ireland must come
together to oppose this reactionary agenda.

The IRSP supports a woman's right to choose abortion on demand, and
we call for legislation on both sides of the border to recognise this
right.

###

Irish Republican Socialist Party
392 Falls Road
Belfast, BT12 6DH, Ireland
+44 28 9032 3416
info@irsp.ie
<a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.irsp.ie/">http://www.irsp.ie/</a>

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]