Despite the landslide victory, Ireland has a ways to go in securing abortion rights
Mary McDermott was born the week before Ireland passed an abortion ban in 1983. The ban became the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, giving a fetus equal rights with the woman carrying it. As a result, Irish women practice self-managed abortion with pills ordered through the mail or board a ferry or flight—10 women a day—to the United Kingdom for abortion.
Last week, Mary and the band she started called Voices for Choice sang to a crowd at Dublin Castle. They were rallying for the “Repeal the Eighth” effort. The choir rewords pop songs with pro-choice language, so Journey’s classic “Don’t Stop Believin’” gets made over as “Don’t Stop Repealing.” The crowd that gathered started singing along.
“I already had this geeky habit of rewording songs already,” Mary tells me. “Then there was this thing called Choicemas Carols that needed people to reword Christmas carols with pro-choice lyrics.” She jumped on it, and the choir flowed from there.
When the final votes were tallied in Ireland—led by Irish women—repeal was won by a landslide. But abortion won’t automatically be available in Ireland. The Oireachtas, Ireland’s parliament, still have to draft and pass a bill that will finally end the ban.
“It will happen later this year or early next year,” Mary tells me during our phone chat. And, she said, despite a few outliers in parliament, “even the ‘no’ politicians have come out and said that they will not push back and will support the will of the people.” And when legal abortion is finally available in Ireland, there won’t be abortion care clinics popping up necessarily.
“Ireland will legislate mostly medical abortion,” says Mary. So most women can just go to their regular doctor and not have to go to a “clinic somewhere specially for abortion.” “There will be cases where surgical abortion is necessary of course in cases of maternal health or fetal abnormalities, but most abortions will be handled privately with between a woman and her GP.”
The day after the repeal passed, The New York Times ran a huge, above-the-fold picture of the Voices for Choice with the headline: “Ireland Votes to End Abortion Ban in Rebuke to Catholic Church.” I ask Mary about the headline: Does that seem right to her? My American gut immediately thought it should read “Women win civil and human rights victory in Ireland!”
It was U.S. groups that worked first to ban abortion in 1983 and build up right-wing anti-choice groups in Ireland to keep abortion illegal.
I was surprised when Mary told me of the headline, “Yes, there is some truth to that.” Though she wanted to be very clear: The repeal movement was a woman-led, grassroots movement that was intersectional and inclusive, not just a rebuke to the church whose authority in Ireland is dwindling after years of child abuse scandals culminating in the horrific 2017 discovery of a mass grave with the remains of up to 800 infants at a former Catholic home for unwed mothers.
But when it comes to the Catholic Church—and in America, rightwing evangelicals—hypocrisy isn’t in the vocabulary.
Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, based in Virginia released a statement that read in part, “The ‘Repeal the 8th’ campaign was a classic example of ideological colonization: It was imported and funded by extreme, pro-abortion special interest groups from outside of Ireland who could not tolerate the reality that Ireland proved that women don’t need abortion to flourish and thrive.”
There is a lot in that brief snippet to unpack. I could go on for days about the invocation of colonization alone. But the interesting bit here is McGuire lays blame at the feet of foreign pro-abortion groups funding the repeal campaign. But it was U.S. groups that worked first to ban abortion in 1983 and build up right-wing anti-choice groups in Ireland to keep abortion illegal.
Women in the United States rejoiced at Ireland’s decisive vote even as abortion rights are under siege here. Iowa recently passed the most restrictive abortion restrictions to date. This is a clear set up for a Supreme Court case to challenge Roe v. Wade. With a Trump presidency, a GOP majority in both houses and Neil Gorsuch as a latter day St. Scalia, the specter of outlawing abortion is feeling all too real. American women should take heed of McGuire’s statement. The “ideological colonization” that was “imported and funded” by foreigners? Those “foreigners” are mostly pouring in from U.S. anti-choice camps.
Ladies, the call is coming from inside the house.
U.S. groups like Live Action and Emergency Mother Care purchased Facebook ads in an effort to sway Irish voters. EMC is a notoriously deceptive anti-choice “crisis pregnancy center” in the U.S. Chris Slattery is the outspoken leader of the group who boasted to a crowd in front of the Consulate of Ireland in New York the week before the referendum that the “no’s” would have it because the ground effort was so on point. Since Ireland enforces the policy that no outside money can be used to advertise for or against any Irish vote, Slatterly, EMC, Live Action and other ant-choice groups were identified by Facebook and their ads removed. Amnesty International was instructed by government officials to return a €137,000 donation by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation for the same reason.
Erin Matson, co-founder and co-director of pro-choice group Reproaction told me via email before the vote, “There is no question U.S.-based anti-abortion groups are looking admiringly at what Russia did in our election, and are hoping to sway the vote in another country.”
“They are the same leaders working with Donald Trump to send women who have abortions to prison,” Matson says.
The “they” Matson refers to includes anti-abortion groups like Americans United for Life, Live Action, Focus on the Family and Heartbeat International, which have all supported Irish pro-life groups for years, with the aim of keeping abortion illegal in Ireland. AUL even boasts on its website that it was integral in making sure the abortion ban passed in the first place. However, much of this support is hidden, and the finances are particularly difficult to trace. In 2012, U.S. group Pro-Life Action League went against this trend when it publicly announced it was raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to support anti-choice groups in Ireland.
“There is no question U.S.-based anti-abortion groups are looking admiringly at what Russia did in our election. They are the same leaders working with Donald Trump to send women who have abortions to prison.”
Cherish Life Ireland is a small but significant case study in how anti-choice organizations work in the U.S. The lobby of 845 Third Avenue is like any other office high-rise in New York City: cool stone floors, a doorman ready to check IDs and inspect bags upon request.
A friend and I are here to visit the registered non-profit group formed to support the pro-life movement in Ireland. The doorman looks through some papers and clicks a few keys on the directory, then makes a call asking “Do we have a Cherish Life Ireland in the building?” From the look on his face the voice on the other end isn’t sure, so the doorman lets us through to find out for ourselves. The elevator opens on the sixth floor, and suddenly we’re in a warren of offices. We find the receptionist, and he confirms there is no Cherish Life Ireland office. It is just a mailing address.
While not unusual—many businesses and individuals use similar services—what makes Cherish Life Ireland unique is the main contact the receptionist gives us: Edward Mechmann, director of public policy at the Catholic Archdiocese of New York. According to IRS records, Mechmann registered Cherish Life Ireland in 2014. Nonprofit groups are required by law to file yearly tax returns detailing fundraising and expenses. And since they are considered public charities by the IRS, nonprofits must make the bylaws and returns of the organization publicly available for review. But if a nonprofit doesn’t raise more than $50,000, it can file what is called a postcard tax return that contains no information whatsoever. Cherish Life Ireland has filed postcards since its incorporation.
When an Irish colleague of mine questioned Mechmann about his organization Cherish Life Ireland in person, he became visibly uncomfortable and said none of the money has yet been spent even though its mission is clear from its website: funding the pro-life effort in Ireland. Sitting behind his desk at the Archdiocese, he added that Cherish Life Ireland is completely separate from the Catholic Church and the only organization he personally raises money for.
Voices for Choice founder Mary McDermott is originally from Roscommon, a rural conservative farming community. While we were on the phone her father kept ringing in. “He is the kind of person who will call you over and over again until you pick up,” Mary says before sending her dad a quick note to say she would call him back.
I ask her—speaking of fathers—what did her dad say about all of this? “I brought it all up to him January this year.” She tells me she was convinced her father—an elderly farmer and pub owner—would be a no. But he surprised her saying he figured it was something a woman has to decide for herself.
In 2015, Roscommon was the only outpost in Ireland to vote against same-sex marriage, but 57 percent of Roscommoners voted “yes” to repeal. McDermott chalks this up to pragmatism. She figures most people, like her father, think, well, if this happens to one of my own, I don’t want them to have to go through hell to get an abortion.
As I finish this piece a headline pops up in my news feed, “Supreme Court Clears the Way for Controversial Arkansas Abortion Law.” SCOTUS refused to hear an appeal on the so-called Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act of 2015, which requires doctors providing abortion pills to have a contract with another doctor, who must have hospital admitting privileges.
As is the case with most of these kinds of laws, the title is misleading at best. This bill has nothing to do with safety. If the government of Arkansas were concerned with women’s health (or anyone’s really) they would have chosen to expand Medicaid. In fact, Arkansas cares so little for the health and safety of its citizens, especially the poor and communities of color, it will require Medicaid recipients to work even though most people on Medicaid cannot work due to chronic conditions or other life-altering health issues. The goal of the law is simply this: Restrict women’s human rights and deny women true equality.
Erin Matson of Reproaction remains optimistic in the face of recent legislation and SCOTUS rulings against reproductive rights. She concluded in our email exchange, “It should be noted that every time they put total abortion bans on the ballot here—as they have in Mississippi and Colorado—they lose.”