Janet Ní Shúilleabháin

This year is the 10th Annual March for Choice, and I am Marching because we Still Do not Have Choice for all those who may need to end a pregnancy.

While the early medical abortion with pills given Choice to thousands of people, there are many who can’t take them for medical reasons, or their home environment is just not suitable for them.

The process can take for some 4 hours, for others it may be 24 to 48 hours. 

This means time off work, or needing childcare or just being able to access a bathroom urgently.

Why isn’t surgical abortion availible, for those for whom abortion pills are not an option?

Why don’t we have this Choice? 

If I had to choose between abortion pills and surgical abortion, I know I would opt for surgical procedure, the same procedure I was lucky to have done in the UK. It was less than an hour, with far fewer side effects.

Also while the abortion pills are very effective, there are rare cases where they don’t work, and then people are again left to travel to the UK, this isn’t good enough, this is not what we fought and voted for. 

We deserve better we deserve a Choice in which abortion procedure we can access as part of compassionate care, here at home in Ireland.