5 October 2017
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
SIPTU delegates voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion for their union to “support the call for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment”, at its Biennial Delegate Conference in Cork City Hall today (Thursday, 5th October).
Proposing the motion on behalf of the union’s Equality Committee, SIPTU National Executive Committee member, Suzanna Griffin, said: “Women comprise more than half of the trade union membership in Ireland and it is unacceptable that they live in a country where the law puts their health and lives at risk, criminalises them and forces them to travel abroad to avail of safe and legal abortion services.
“Some women have to undergo torturous situations, for example when a woman is pregnant with a foetus with a fatal foetal abnormality, or pregnant as the result of rape. So what happens? Women travel aboard for terminations. The hypocrisy of this situation is shameful.”
She added: “But this motion is not asking any delegate here to make a moral or personal decision on the provision of abortion in Ireland. It is merely asking you to support the call for a referendum so that the people of Ireland can make a democratic decision as they did in 1983.
“The women of Ireland deserve our support on this and people in Ireland deserve an opportunity to vote on the 8th Amendment given that no person of child bearing age has had the opportunity to make this decision themselves.”
