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People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith speaking at a press conference in Dublin today. Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

'Get out of our lives': Call for abortion penalty to be reduced to €1 fine

A new bill aimed at decriminalising abortion in Ireland will be debated by the Dáil tomorrow.

A NEW BILL to be debated in the Dáil tomorrow would see the penalty for a woman in Ireland who procures an abortion reduced from 14 years in prison to a fine of €1.

The bill has been tabled by People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith, who said the revelations about the mother and baby home in Tuam are “a blatant example of the Church and the State’s cruel and barbaric treatment of women and children.”.

Today, women in Ireland are still treated as second class citizens and the barbaric sentence of 14 years imprisonment for accessing an abortion here is a shocking example of this. The Church and the State continue to dictate that women are not allowed to make their own choices as to whether to have children or not.

“This is why we urgently need a referendum to Repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution,” she said.

Smith said it was time for the Church to “get out of our lives, our beds, our hospitals and our schools”.

She said her bill, which will be debated by TDs in the Dáil tomorrow, is aimed at decriminalising abortion in Ireland. The debate follows further discussion at the Citizens’ Assembly over the weekend about repealing the Eighth amendment.

It also comes as 50 activists from Rosa (for Reproductive Rights, against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity) begin a tour around the country on a bus to publicise the availability of abortion pills online through Women on Web.

The bus started in University College Dublin this morning and will visit Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Kildare between now and Wednesday evening, finishing with a march to the Dáil at 5.30pm from the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.

Read: Youth Defence: ‘Sex traffickers and child molesters love abortion’>

Read: Citizens’ Assembly told repealing the Eighth doesn’t necessarily mean a right to abortion>

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    Mute John Mack
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    Nov 29th 2011, 5:22 PM

    not to downplay the serious of breast cancer but it’s movember more people die from testicle cancer than breast. so numbers are way higher across the board.

    thank you to all my mo bro’s for raising awareness.

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    Mute Charles Magus
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    Nov 29th 2011, 4:05 PM

    Not suprising when you consider that Ireland is one of the highest fluoridated countries in the world! That is also why the Irish are so much asleep and do not speak out against injustice. The same happened to the prisoners of war in Nazi Germany when they were fluoridated by the Nazis, so anything could be done with the prisoners without much retaliation. The Nazis learned this from the Soviets! Fluoride has no health benefits what-so-ever! It was all a Bogus science as Doctor Harald Hodge sold himself out to protest an industry that was being sued by farmers and people working with fluorine gas which contaminated and destroyed livestock and people. Using the lies of this one scientist, the lawsuites were stopped.

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    Mute poppysmith
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    Nov 29th 2011, 4:26 PM

    Really not surprising when you take into account that some women have to travel 4 hours or more to a breast clinic, you have to find someone to mind your children for the whole day just so you can get checked over. Then there’s the treatment – these centres of excellence that were introduced are a disaster. A relation of mine was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer – he will have to travel over 6 hours a day for radiotherapy. Having cancer is stressful enough but throwing ridiculous amounts of travel in on cramped buses makes it even harder. It’s a time when you need to be resting and to be surrounded by your family and instead you spend it on a bus..no wonder our mortality rates are so high.

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    Mute ObligPic
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    Nov 29th 2011, 4:36 PM

    Got any peer reviewed scientifically verified evidence to back up that bullshit Charles?

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    Mute Keith Byrne
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    Nov 29th 2011, 4:36 PM

    The Nazi fluoridation story is a myth. As is its psychological effects.

    The scientific evidence for its effectiveness against tooth decay in children and adults is well documented over many years of study.
    And there hasn’t been any direct link between fluoridation and increased risk of cancer that I can find. So I don’t see how it is any more a cancer risk than coffee.
    There is also a big difference between flourine gas and the flouride salts used in the water supply.
    Please don’t spread this crap. And I don’t want to see any “evidence” from some random website thanks.

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