#TrustWomen – Not Sinn Féin or the DUP

Today the DUP and Sinn Féin brought forward a motion that would seriously hinder people’s reproductive rights in the Six Counties. Despite branding themselves as a pro-choice party, Sinn Féin are proposing an amendment to abortion legislation, which will result in Irish women being forced to travel to Britain to access reproductive healthcare.

In February 2018, the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published its report, which concluded that women in the Six Counties were discriminated against, as access to full and safe healthcare was continually denied. 

In a copy and pasted reply to many constituents, who had emailed their Sinn Féin representatives to stop the support for this amendment, the party wrote that, “Sinn Féin does not support CEDAWs recommendation to provide abortion in the case of severe fetal impairment”. 

Sinn Féin’s policy is only supportive of reproductive rights with terms and conditions applied. A political party has no right to dictate under which terms abortion is acceptable. No one, but the person accessing healthcare, has the right to decide what happens to their body. Reproductive rights are human rights, and women in the Six Counties have had their rights violated for too long.

#trustwomen cannot just be a slogan. To restrict abortion access is to export people and their trauma from Ireland; forcing them to leave their home to access healthcare which is their human right to receive. This is not, and it will not ever be, acceptable. 

The DUP motion, and Sinn Féin’s amendment to it, is a denial of bodily autonomy. Reproductive rights are human rights, and those who wish to restrict this must be held accountable.

ENDS