Reproductive rights (including Repeal the 8th)

Yeah exactly. Heard someone mention the fact that there could be an election in the next six months, and in that case they’re likely to postpone the vote even further

Yeah, there’s been rumors of it, which is a bit odd, considering Leo only came in a few months ago. I thought he would want a good run of it.

:fist:

couple of big names on here too in among the irish bands (shame LVL UP are in there in retrospect but at least they’re not getting any money from it)

What’s the problem with LVL UP? Googling isn’t showing any controversies that I can find?

oh shit yeah i got them mixed up with PWR BTTM for a minute. fucking all-caps-no-vowels bastards.

as far as i know LVL UP are good lads

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:smiley:
So 21st Century.

Bumping this with the Irish referendum less than 50 days away now, in case anyone wants to chat about that or if any of the LME fancy this fundraiser for the campaign & abortion support.

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There’s a Facebook group called Abroad For Yes where people with disposable income can pay for students studying abroad who can’t afford to fly home and vote to repeal the 8th (as students aren’t eligible for postal votes): Abroad for Yes | Facebook

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I had a gay friend from Ireland travel back to vote, he was absolutely thrilled with the result :slight_smile:

that was basically the most wholesome day on social media too. i kept crying over beautiful messages/stories on Twitter. really really hope i’m doing the same next month :heart:

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Bernadette Goulding, of the abortion recovery support group, Rachel’s Vineyard, recalled her own abortion in London when she was told by doctors that it was “a quick-fix, but no one told me that there is no quick fix for (the) regret” that she had seen repeatedly in her work. . . “I suffered from guilt, shame, depression, anxiety and I felt I should apologise to the ground for even walking on it. I had no self esteem and every challenging event that happened in my life after that, I believed I deserved it. . . Women who have had abortions, we find many ways to punish ourselves.”

i have a mate who got an abortion a couple of years ago and tbqh she never looked back. i mean if someone wants to grieve over it then fair enough, but i hate this christian sense of obligation to impose your own feelings of shame and guilt on other people.

[details=“Summary”]

Not sure how people will feel about the following extremely pro-choice position of my friend, so posting it as a summary

so yeah, she once said she felt bad for not feeling bad, if you get me. she said it was hard to get too worked up over a lump of cells, and this societal pressure she felt to express grief over what’s essentially as routine and minor a procedure as an appendectomy was worse than the procedure itself. when she hears people fretting about “abortion on demand” she’s befuddled why this is a bad thing. so am i.[/details]

hopefully the referendum brings the right result.

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but under no circumstances does forcing women to be pregnant and have babies against their will improve things for disabled people (in fact it totally undermines the hard fought for claims for bodily autonomy and universal access to health care).

when it’s put this starkly it kinda makes me think of the reparations debate in the states. like, the political/social/moral reasoning is so clear and powerful it’s infuriating it’s even still an argument societies are having in 2018.

Heading to a canvassing workshop on Thursday. Knocked on doors for the last referendum, will be knocking on doors for this one. It’s too important to sit on the sidelines and watch.

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:fist:

reckon this is worth a read.

includes these propositions about language…

I want to suggest two small shifts in the words we use. The first is to replace the word “pregnant” with “impregnated”, to restore a sense of causality to a condition that is sometimes seen as self-enclosed. The other is to swap out the phrase “unwanted pregnancy” with its echoes of unwanted gifts, or what used to be called “unwanted advances” or “attentions” (now called harassment), and to use the more radical “pregnancy without consent”.

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will be flying home to vote, and am trying to do a bit of work with the scottish irish abortion rights campaign here

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Gonna guess this was the impetus for the minor demonstration in George Sq that we walked past the other week. The counter-demo by the pro-choice contingent was notably larger/louder.

I’d imagine that was probably the end of the annual 40 days of life demo rather than being around the referendum. They’re proper nuts, in Ealing a full procession of anti-choicers march from the church all the way to the abortion clinic there where they hold a vigil every sunday during lent

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Over here in Galway, we’ve got a lot of posters around for keeping the 8th. I think it will be close over here. There was a lot of people at some of the rallies to repeal, but the amount of posters for keeping it and that it’s kind of traditional outside of the city makes it this way

Yes campaign started a fundraiser this morning to fund a poster campaign and raised €270,000 in 12 hours

https://twitter.com/Together4yes/status/983803160752984065

(you need to be either an Irish citizen or resident in Ireland to donate)

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