Ireland's abortion laws are among the most barbaric in the world — among its many deficits, it forces women to carry unviable fetuses to term, making them labor to deliver babies who live short hours in extreme pain before dying before them.
The ban also provides for 14 year prison sentences for women who import pharmaceuticals used to induce abortion.
An "ad-hoc, non-affiliated group of activists, academics, artists and trade unionists" calling itself Strike4Repeal are set to strike on March 8 — International Women's Day, also the Day Without a Woman protests in America — if the government doesn't call for a referendum on the abortion law before then.
They'll be repeating the tactic that Polish women used to defeat their own country's cruel abortion ban (though it keeps resurfacing).
The Polish and Irish abortion laws are similarly overbroad, and share a similar origin: conservative Catholic lobbyists, with Church backing, who use the faith's enormous cash reserves to forge alliances with misogynist elements in the far-right movement to craft these anti-woman policies.
Strike4Repeal is an “ad-hoc, non-affiliated group of activists, academics, artists and trade unionists,” and the strike is endorsed by Abortion Rights Campaign, Outhouse, the Anti-Racism Network and Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, and other feminist organizations and women’s advocacy groups. There are several ways in which Irish women are encouraged to support the strike (and women around the world are encouraged to show solidarity):
* If you can, take the day off work.
* Forgo domestic chores, if possible.
* Ask local businesses to close their services in support.
*
Wear black in solidarity.*
Register support on social media using the hashtag #strike4repeal.
Feminism Around the World: Irish Women Set to Strike If Referendum on Abortion Ban Not Held by March 8th
[Teresa Jusino/The Mary Sue]
(Image: Abortion Rights IE)
