Accessing Abortion in Ireland: Meeting the Needs of Every Woman
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
What: Launch of ‘Accessing Abortion in Ireland: Meeting the Needs of Every Woman’
When: Tuesday, 25th May, 10:30 am
Where: Online (Zoom) - please register here to receive link https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/accessing-abortion-in-ireland-meeting-the-needs-of-every-woman-tickets-153973913119
Join us on May 25th to mark the anniversary of the vote to repeal the 8th Amendment with the launch of our research paper Accessing Abortion in Ireland: Meeting the Needs of Every Woman, and a wide-ranging panel discussion on abortion in Ireland since the introduction of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 (ToP) in 2019.
Accessing Abortion in Ireland: Meeting the Needs of Every Woman, commissioned by the National Women’s Council and authored by Dr Sinead Kennedy, explores the provision of abortion services in Ireland under the ToP Act. At this webinar Dr Sinead Kennedy will present this research examining women’s and pregnant people’s experience and access of abortion services as well as providers’ experience of service delivery.
The paper outlines the National Women’s Council’s legal and policy recommendations in advance of upcoming review of the legislation based on the key issues women and pregnant people are facing since the ToP Act was introduced.
We will also hear from Leah Hoctor, Regional Director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights, who funded this research.
This will then be followed by a wide-ranging panel discussion, chaired by Director of the National Women’s Council, Orla O’Connor, with time for audience question and answers.
• Nem Kearns, Board Secretary, Disabled Women Ireland
• Dr Mary Favier, Founder Member of Doctors for Choice Ireland and current co-chair of Global Doctors for Choice
• Claire Cullen Delsol, Termination for Medical Reasons
• Ailbhe Smyth, former Co-Director of Together for Yes
• Sasha Terfous, Spoken Word Artist and will perform a number of stories of women and pregnant people who have travelled to the UK to access abortion services.
Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpretation will be provided at this event.
About our speakers
Dr Sinéad Kennedy
Dr Sinéad Kennedy teaches in the English Department at Maynooth University. She has written and commented widely on feminism, culture, Irish and European politics, co-edited The Abortion Papers Ireland: Volume 2 (2015) and is currently completing a study of the Eighth Amendment. She was co-founder and secretary of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment and led the research team for Together for Yes.
Dr Mary Favier
Dr Mary Favier is a general practitioner in Cork, Ireland. She is immediate past president of the Irish College of General Practitioners. She is a fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. In her practice she is a GP trainer and an early medical abortion provider.
She is a founder member of Doctors for Choice Ireland. She is current co-chair of Global Doctors for Choice. She is a founder member of the Start group – the Irish abortion providers support and education group. She was an external advisor to the recently published WHO study on policy implementation of safe abortion services in Ireland.
Claire Cullen Delsol
Claire Cullen Delsol joined Terminations for Medical Reasons (TFMR) shortly after losing her daughter Alex in 2015. Becoming a Director of TFMR after in 2016, Claire was part of the core team of four women which lead the organisation's campaign for the referendum to Repeal the 8th Amendment. Claire also became a peer supporter with the charity and TFMR sister organisation Leanbh Mo Chroi (now LMC Bereavement Support) and in that role has supported women and families through the experience of losing their baby after a diagnosis of a fetal condition. Claire's contribution to the TFMR campaign included addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the 8th Amendment, newspaper, television and radio interviews, writing op-eds and coordinating a social media and fundraising campaign. After the TFMR Ireland CLG was wound down in 2021 Claire became a trustee of LMC Bereavement, the choice based charity which supports parents after a diagnosis of fetal anomaly and has taken on an advocacy role ahead of the legislative review of Ireland's abortion laws.
Nem Kearns
Nem Kearns is a reproductive rights and disability justice advocate who serves as Board Secretary for Disabled Women Ireland (DWI), Ireland’s only national Disabled Persons Organisation for women, girls and non-binary people. DWI is a policy-focused advocacy organisation who operate from the principle that disabled people's equal participation in all aspects of society is a human rights issue.
Nem is also a member of the Abortion Rights Campaign and worked as External Communications Lead on the Together for Yes campaign. As a multiply disabled person and member of the LGBTQIA+ community, Nem firmly believes that intersectionality is fundamental to achieving meaningful equality and seeks to apply the maxim 'Nothing About Us, Without Us' in all their work.
Ailbhe Smyth
Ailbhe Smyth is a long time campaigner and former head of Women’s Studies at UCD. Ailbhe was a member of the Strategic Executive of the referendum campaign for marriage equality in 2015. Committed to achieving bodily autonomy for women in Ireland, she has campaigned in all of the Irish abortion referendums. In 2014 Ailbhe co-founded and is now Convenor of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, a broad cross-sectoral platform of over 100 organisations and groups.
Leah Hoctor
Leah is Regional Director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights and leads the Center’s Europe Program. In this role she directs the Center’s litigation, advocacy and policy work in Europe, managing both in-country work and European regional engagement.
Before joining the Center, Leah was a Senior Legal Advisor with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), where she established and led the ICJ’s inaugural Women’s Human Rights Program. In that role, she managed in-country and cross-regional projects in Africa, Asia and Europe on women’s access to justice and women in the judiciary, provided third-party support for litigation and directed ICJ’s legal and policy advocacy on a wide range of women’s human rights issues. Before establishing the ICJ’s Women’s Human Rights Program, Leah served as a Legal Advisor and Program Officer with the ICJ’s International Economic Relations Program, coordinating, researching and drafting Corporate Complicity & Legal Accountability: the Report of the ICJ’s Expert Legal Panel on Corporate Complicity in International Crimes. Prior to that, Leah worked briefly with the Human Rights Unit of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.
Starts: 25 May 2021 10:30
Ends: 25 May 2021 12:15