Louise O'Neill: It is still enormously difficult to get an abortion in this country

"Imagine trying to navigate this system as a homeless woman or a migrant woman living in direct provision. Or a woman living with an abusive partner, or a woman from a rural area with little or no services."

Picture: Miki Barlok

When the exit polls were announced on the evening of the 25th of May, 2018, indicating that the Yes campaign had won the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment by a landslide, I wasn’t elated, as I had been when marriage equality was passed. Instead, I was exhausted – it had been a bitterly fought campaign, and as a woman, it was difficult to feel as if I was begging for the right to make decisions about my own body. 

In the years since, I have sensed a certain fatigue when it comes to talking about abortion rights in this country, an assumption that it’s all ‘sorted’ now because of that referendum. But unfortunately, that is simply not the case. It is still enormously difficult to get an abortion in this country. Let’s look at some figures: