Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th Amendment
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Dear Editor,
The Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th Amendment is a group for organising trade union activists and members from all trade unions in the fight to repeal the 8th.
The 8th amendment and its removal are a key issue for working women and it is a struggle that we believe trade unions have a huge role to play in. It is important that members of unions show support for repeal, and that marches and protests have a visible trade union contingent.
The Irish trade union movement has a long and storied history in the defence of and implementation of women’s rights. Trade unionism has never just been about securing a decent wage or better conditions but about improving circumstance for all workers in all regards of life. This includes the fight for childcare, access to contraceptives, and the choice to use them, as well as campaigning for access to abortion care. Any barrier placed on workers that denies them full social, economic, and political access is one that trade unions are obliged to tear down.
The ‘Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th Amendment’ is continuing this tradition in calling for the repeal of the 8th amendment, which equates the life of mother and foetus as equal in all circumstances. The campaign believes that Trade Unionism has a huge role to play in securing repeal following from the ICTU and DCTU's historic roles in the 1983 anti-amendment fight.
Women make up more than 50% of all trade union memberships and almost 50% of all workers in this country. That is excluding the social reproductive work that many women do, such as care work, in addition to working outside the home. The majority of these women are in low paid, part time or precarious jobs. CSO figures show that 50% of working women earn €20,000 or less a year. A common misconception is that many of these women in lower paid jobs are students or new to the job market. This isn't the case, and increasingly so in recent years, they will often be the main income source for a family.
If one of these women finds herself in the position of a crisis pregnancy the 8th amendment forces her to travel abroad for routine medical procedure denied to her in Ireland. This can cost anything from €850 - €2,000, and for a low paid worker this can equate to 10% or more of their annual income. She may also be forced to take unplanned or unpaid leave or arrange childcare which would be an added cost. Repeal is a workplace issue for these women and one that trade unions needs to be strong on.
The situation is significantly worse for women with no income, those who are reliant on social welfare and migrant women. Migrant women in particular are unable to access abortion as a result of insurmountable travel and legal obstacles. They also face the hardship of accessing funding to travel. Which means that facing this dilemma falls hardest on the poorest. Repeal of the 8th amendment is a women’s issue, a workers issue but ultimately an issue of class.
We have seen the hypocrisy of this amendment exemplified many times over the past 30 years, from the X case in 1992, the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 and the shocking obscenity of the treatment of the Y case as well as more recently the appalling incubation of a foetus in a medically dead woman. This is due to nothing other than this states refusal to deal with an archaic amendment that equates the life of a woman with that of a foetus. This is tantamount to reproductive slavery.
The 8th amendment is a barrier to progress and an extention of the church control that allowed the Magdelene laundries to exist. It denies women their rights and dignity further fuelling the shame that this state has heaped on women over the decades who may have found themselves in the position of a crisis pregnancy. The 8th amendment is not a moral issue and it has never been about protecting life. It is there to target and punish, working class, poor and migrant women for daring to think they deserve equality and control over their own lives and bodies.
All trade unions members must embrace the demands made by women for an equal society. All women in Ireland deserve to know that their choice, bodily autonomy, economic freedom, health and lives are theirs and theirs alone and repeal of the 8th amendment is a good step in the direction of achieving this.
The Trade Union Campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment is supported by Unite the Union, Unite Youth, Mandate Trade Union, Dublin Council of Trade Unions, Waterford Council of Trade Unions, CWU Youth Committee, Bray and District Council of Trade Unions and ICTU Youth Committee.
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