Readers Blog: Time to end the secrecy, shame and trauma

Following the convoluted letter ‘Abortion will ‘fix’ our population rise’ (Irish Examiner, February 21), it is clearly important to gently restate that repealing the Eighth Amendment, just as inserting the Eighth Amendment in the first place, will do nothing to change our abortion rate.

Thousands of women travelled to England for an abortion the years and decades leading up to the Eighth Amendment referendum, and thousands have travelled every year since. Numbers travelling since 2001 have decreased, interestingly just at the same time as the numbers accessing illegal online abortion pills have gone up. If UK-style abortion access is broad, safe, and legal, then Irish-style abortion provision is secrecy, shame and quiet, consistent, intergenerational trauma.