Once again the news coming out of Ireland regarding the welfare of women and children is
both appalling and yet unsurprising.---- The country which imprisoned and starved women
and their babies for being respectively pregnant and illegitimate and which buried them in
mass graves, has committed another atrocity against a woman. She is unnamed, a
non-national, who speaks little English and was, at the time the crisis pregnancy began, a
minor aged 17..---- This woman has suffered multiple rapes. Firstly she was raped by the
penis, then by the medical instruments wielded by doctors and other practitioners who
forced the equipment into her body, down her throat and into her abdomen and womb. She was
forced to carry the foetus she did not want. The whole horrible, sad mess is another
example of how a male-based, church-based, state based power deals with women who don?t
fit and accept its structure. When we do not accept the power of a male-based religion, a
capitalist patriarchal state we are assaulted by its full strength.
When Savita Haloppanovar died in Galway 2 years ago, after being refused a termination
despite being in the throes of miscarriage and suffering from septicaemia, many
reproductive rights activists including myself, thought, this is it. They can?t allow any
more disasters like this. The law will change, people needing terminations will be able to
get them where they need them and when they need them. We thought the Irish State would
not want to expose itself to any further international embarrassment. In the last month
the Irish State has been heavily criticised by the United Nations for its cruel abortion
legislation. But, no. The wheels of legislation rumble slowly and the bodies of those
pregnant are ground between the cogs of the machine.
The State does not exist for the welfare of its citizens. The State exists for the benefit
of, amongst others, the powerful and the rich, the religious hierarchy and those who
benefit from patriarchy. We anarchists know this well. Horror stories such as this one
will continue as long as we are governed . It will only be in an anarchist revolution that
all the components of this horrible story, from male violence, oppressive state
legislation, medical dominance, ageism where young people?s decision making is invalidated
will be removed. The organisations working in Ireland are campaigning for the repeal of
the 8th amendment. Whilst this will improve the situation it will not truly free us. The
power of the state will remain.
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» (en) Britain, AFed to the unknown rape survivor: Ireland, 2014