A pamphlet was once handed to me outside a clinic that said,
"Women who have abortions are more likely to..." Sorry.
"Are more likely to sexually abuse their children."
And women are receiving this information,
trying to access healthcare.
[INTERVIEWER] Why did you originally decide to go into midwifery?
I wanted to be a vet for the majority of my life.
And I did a lot of work experience with animals.
And my favourite thing about animals was birth.
I really enjoyed calving, I loved lambing, puppies.
I mean, you know, who doesn't love baby animals?
And so I decided, "Well, I like birth so much,
I reckon I can probably do it with humans."
Birth is amazing.
Birth is like,
it's unbelievable, and it's even more unbelievable
when it's humans.
Like, it's insane.
If you've ever been at a birth or, you know, birthed,
you'll know what I'm talking about.
Babies coming into the world, it's incredible.
I've worked in every single aspect
of midwifery that, you know, that you can think of.
And it was only when the rumblings began in Ireland,
and it was only when I suddenly could see this change
was hopefully coming that I just decided to re-evaluate
what my role meant to me.
I'm a carer of women and pregnant people.
That's what my midwife means.
And I said, "Right, I need to get into abortion services.
That's what I need to do."
Because I think there is just vulnerability
and the isolation that comes
from the way the services are run at the moment,
support needs to be there.
I still do a bit of both.
So, I work mainly in abortion services,
but I also still do one day a week then
to work with my clients who decide to continue
with their pregnancy.
And it's a really lovely balance.
[INTERVIEWER] Could you explain to me what abortion is?
Abortion is
ending an unwanted pregnancy.
So, I mean,
it ranges from,
it ranges from "I have one child already,
I don't want another."
"I have two kids already, I can't afford another."
"I have three, I hadn't planned for a fourth."
Sexual assault,
a planned pregnancy, and then,
suddenly life circumstances change
and this isn't gonna be possible.
Like, you name it.
The difficult thing that I have with it is
I don't think that women and pregnant people
should need to tell their reason.
[INTERVIEWER] For women who are living in a place
where abortion is not legal,
what options do they have?
When we think back to kind of mid-century,
and we think about backstreet abortions,
and a lot of kind of that image of a wire hanger
is kind of used a lot, and I think that imagery
is particularly strong, and quite challenging.
But, backstreet abortions can be done.
Usually it would be just getting medicines
from unregulated sources, so online, or yeah,
through the internet, mainly.
Or you could travel.
You could go abroad.
And that's what the majority of women do.
Every single flight, they reckon,
between Ireland and the UK
had somebody travelling for a termination,
like, since forever.
And, what does that do to somebody,
just to kind of take off and land in a different country
and be treated by another country, and then fly back home?
And you have to pretend it didn't happen,
because it's a criminal offence.
If we think about nowadays, clients in Ireland
who have a pregnancy with a fatal abnormality.
So, they've been told the likelihood is
is that their baby will not survive when their baby's born.
There is not a provision in the Republic of Ireland
to help those clients, so they have to get on planes
and fly to the UK to receive healthcare.
In Ireland, there's this three-day
mandatory wait period that they've put in.
They've plucked this figure from the sky.
Somebody has walked in and just said,
"We need another little bit of red tape,
we need another hoop.
Let's just create this three-day number."
So what that means is a client will go,
or speak, to her healthcare professional.
Usually her GP.
Hopefully her GP is pro-choice,
because there is this whole thing where they can object
and not provide healthcare if they wish.
And then she decides she wants to have a termination.
She discusses this with her healthcare professional,
and her healthcare professional says, "Right,
come back to me in three days,"
and she has to wait 72 hours.
And for some clients,
that will take them over the 12-week mark.
So that means they can no longer have treatment in Ireland.
There's so many little things that are just infuriating,
and really upsetting,
and they do not belong in the 21st century.
And for every single person impacted
by these ridiculous, nonsensical limitations
they have on the service,
they are mentally and physically going to be affected.
It's so damaging to mental health, physical health,
having to do that.
You know, what other choice do they have?
[INTERVIEWER] I wonder, what is the three-day
kind of rule there for, in their eyes?
It's just, there is absolutely zero evidence
to support this three-day wait.
I guess it's this whole thing of,
"Well, you need more time."
As if, you know,
as if we don't think about
what we would do in an unplanned pregnancy.
Your period's late, you think about it, you know?
You worry and think. We assess this
every single day of our lives.
It's always something that's in the back of your mind,
about how you would manage your health.
Of course women and pregnant people
will make the right decision for themselves.
And of course when they come to you,
this is what they want, and you have to respect that.
That is their choice.
But no, you need three more days.
[INTERVIEWER] Can you recall any cases of women
who have died because of lack of access to abortion,
or through getting an illegal abortion?
In 2012, a woman,
Savita Halappanavar,
died.
And she died because she was 17 weeks pregnant,
and she was miscarrying.
So, the pregnancy was ending,
but there was still a heartbeat.
And she was becoming septic,
and we know that sepsis is one of the greatest killers
of women and pregnant people.
And by I think the second day
from when she attended the hospital,
she started asking if she could have a termination,
and she was refused because that was,
that was the law.
And a comment was made
by one of her healthcare professionals
when she was asking for a termination,
and a comment was made
stating, "This is a Catholic country, and we don't do that."
She passed her pregnancy, and then she went into a coma,
and then she died at like 1 o'clock in the morning,
in October in 2012.
It was actually the hospital
that I'd just started working in.
I'd just qualified, and I was
on my little temporary midwifery contract.
And at the time, you know,
when you heard about it,
it was shocking, but,
it wasn't that shocking?
Not that I didn't think about it again,
but you know, it's the nature of the job that we do
is that there are, you know, things happen.
And she was essentially,
she was it, she was the reason
why women in Ireland can now have terminations.
So, she changed our constitution.
And so we owe everything to her.
But she just, she just died
from not having basic reproductive healthcare.
It's so weird to, it's so weird.
There's a lot of loss in our job,
but as midwives we,
as well as the amazing, wonderful, happy times,
we see a lot of loss.
We see a lot of bereavement. Sorry.
[INTERVIEWER] Do you want me to get you some tissues?
No, I'm okay.
But even at the time, you just go through the motions
with it, and you accept it as part of your job.
Any one of us could've been Savita.
But, I think the reason why I'm crying more
is because of the positive impact that she had.
And like, the weekend of the Referendum,
it's actually coming up to the three-year mark.
I'm sorry. It's coming up
to the three-year mark at the moment.
And they're doing now, they're having a consultation.
It was written into the legislation
that there needed to be a three-year review,
and that's coming up now.
And I just think we need to keep that momentum going,
and we need to just make it better, and better, and better
because, you know, there still are clients who are,
there is many clients who are still being forgotten,
and who are still being exported,
And that's it, we're exporting a problem
instead of just identifying it and dealing with it here
head on, sorting it out, and just normalising it.
[INTERVIEWER] Could you explain to us what a pro-lifer is?
I prefer to call pro-lifers "anti-choice",
because I believe I am pro-life,
and I am pro-life, the life of the pregnant person
requesting a termination.
So anti-choice are the people
who do not agree with abortion.
They don't agree with total reproductive health.
And I will say that you are
absolutely entitled to your opinion,
with anything, absolutely.
But what you are not entitled to,
and what I feel very strongly about,
is you are not entitled to stand outside clinics
and force your opinion on clients
who are seeking reproductive health.
And that's where I get very annoyed.
But, I have friends who are anti-choice,
and we get on fine.
And I have-
It's like somebody coming to me
and trying to change my opinion about abortion.
It just isn't gonna happen,
so I can totally appreciate that.
But what I don't think that you are entitled to do
is to force your opinion, and it is physically forced,
to give misleading information.
A pamphlet was once handed to me outside a clinic that said,
"Women who have abortions are more likely to..." Sorry.
"Are more likely to sexually abuse their children."
And women are receiving this information,
trying to access healthcare.
You are entitled to your opinion, absolutely.
And we need opinions, and we need difference of opinion.
It's really healthy to have debate,
but you cannot debate somebody else's,
or force your opinion on somebody else
trying to access healthcare.
That is not right.
One in six, I believe, GPs or doctors in Ireland
who are providing termination services have been harassed,
and abused, and received threatening behavior.
Like,
pro-life?
Nah.
It's not on.
[INTERVIEWER] Did you ever have any reservations
about working in the industry?
I didn't think about it twice, no.
Not, no, not even a rumbling of it.
It's just, I've unbelievable job satisfaction
working in this job, because you are removing someone
from a crisis instantly.
Like, the gratitude and the relief
that you are giving to another human being, it's incredible.
No, I've never even had a second thought on it.
You all know somebody who's had an abortion.
You probably know several people who've had an abortion.
One in four of us have had an abortion.
And abortions will continue to happen at that rate.
Whether or not they are legal and regulated and local,
they will still occur,
But in more dangerous sort of circumstances.
And I think we all have a responsibility to make this
just a really normal part of our healthcare.
It is safe, and it is normal, and it is everywhere.