Irish groups react to US Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights

There have been conflicting reactions in Ireland to the ruling by the US Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional right to choose abortion in the United States which has existed for almost 50 years.

The Abortion Rights Campaign condemned the news that the Supreme Court in the US had overturned a 50-year constitutional right to abortion access.

It said thirteen US states have “abortion trigger bans”, making abortion illegal as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned, with 26 states expected to move quickly to outlaw abortion.

“Abortion bans are racist, they are misogynistic, and fallout from this decision will be catastrophic,” says ARC spokesperson Darina Murray. “We in Ireland know how an abortion ban creates stigma, isolation, causes long-term damage to health and even death. We also know that abortion bans disproportionately affect marginalised people such as migrants and people of colour.

“This is not an isolated or sudden incident - this is the culmination of a decades-long quest from anti-abortion groups to erase reproductive rights. We must resist the erosion of our hard-won rights at every turn - in the USA, in Ireland, and across the globe.”

“To all those activists and pregnant people facing the horrific implications of this decision: we stand with you today and every day. We know from bitter experience that change is possible even when our laws fail us. Do not give up hope. Please look to your local activist groups because we know from experience that grassroots feminist activism can create momentous change. Things are dark now, but we know you can resist this.”

“It is unacceptable that there are more rights to hold a gun in the USA than to control one’s own body,” added ARC spokesperson Helen Stonehouse. “Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to carry a gun is too important to be regulated by individual states, and yet today rules that the right to access abortion is not.

“These laws have never been about protecting life but about controlling those of us who have sex for recreation, not just procreation, those whose bodies and lives do not fit the rigid norms assigned to them by the patriarchy. Our determination to control our own bodies, our own future, to decide if we become a parent, who to do that with and when, how to raise our families and how to live our lives will always terrify those who want to control us, to us as Virgins or Magdalenes, to put us in boxes and keep us there.”

Ms Murray continued, “In a country that still forces some people to travel for an abortion, we call on Irish politicians to safeguard access to free, safe, legal, accessible and local abortion. Abortion is not politics. Abortion is healthcare. Political decisions can cost lives, and this one to remove a constitutional right to healthcare will do just that.”

Meanwhile, the The Pro Life Campaign hailed the decision as a “momentous development for the right to life” and for “the protection of the most vulnerable members of the human family, unborn babies.”

Commenting after the Dobbs v. Jackson court decision was announced, Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said: “Today’s decision is a momentous development for the right to life. It means that for the first time in almost 50 years, it is possible once again to legally protect unborn babies in the United States.”

She continued: “Since the Roe v Wade decision in 1973, there have been over 60 million legal abortions performed in the US. Such a shockingly tragic figure cannot be explained away by simply repeating the ‘right to choose’ mantra. It calls for something much deeper and reflective. Something however that’s been noticeably absent from much of the media coverage since the leak about the Supreme Court decision emerged is an even-handed assessment of what prompted the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Ms Mulroy said: “Most media commentators are quick to indulge in ad hominem attacks on the pro-life movement instead of taking a fair and honest look at the compelling personal and cultural reasons that contributed to today’s decision.

“Among the key influencers of the abortion debate in the US in recent years are women who talk openly about their abortions and the devastating impact it has had on their lives. Hundreds of thousands of young people from across the US attend the annual March for Life which takes place every January in Washington DC. Aside from the huge numbers it attracts, the very personal way many of these young people have been impacted by abortion is unmistakable. Some speak openly about how they were almost aborted and how their mothers changed their minds at the last minute and decided to continue the pregnancy. The impact for many of knowing these truths about themselves has been life changing.

“The blinkered way in which some members of the media close ranks in defence of legal abortion has resulted in large areas of the debate being overlooked and the significance of what it represents being missed. With 95% of media coverage on abortion favouring the pro-choice position, there are a lot of information gaps to be filled if the public are to be presented with a more accurate account of what actually led to today’s Supreme Court decision.

“The overturning of Roe v Wade is going to be misrepresented and attacked in the coming days. Of that there is little doubt. But over time I believe it will have a significant impact, not just in the US but also on the debate here in Ireland, resulting in many people questioning the new abortion regime that exists in this country, in a way that hasn’t happened before now.”