This is what an abortion up to 12 weeks looks like. You take two of these bad boys now and two in 12 hours time, or a variation on that timeframe. The drug is a spasmodic, it induces uterine contraction and brings on what is basically a heavy period. It takes you off your feet for about two days. This drug is made in Ireland and is used in Ireland. Any woman who has an early miscarriage has had this drug administered to evacuate the uterus instead of a d&c. This drug is safe and endorsed as an essential medicine by the WHO. I have taken this drug on every miscarriage I had that did not require d&c. I never found a fully formed baby in the detritus. The next time somebody hits you with comments like ‘ripping babies limb from limb in the womb’ you can assuredly show them this.

This is what is being proposed. Anything after 12 weeks reverts back to what we have now, life or death for the mother. Not being able to access this drug causes women to have to have later term procedures. Not everybody can just conjure up €1000 in the 9th week of pregnancy and head off to England.

You will head down to your GP, have your pregnancy confirmed, talk over EVERY option available to you and you both together will decide on the best option for you, if you decide on termination your doctor will prescribe this drug to you and you will pick it up from the chemist and go home to self administer.

This is humane. What is in the uterus up to 12 weeks has a heartbeat and has the potential for life, to say anything else is an affront to every couple who have ever lost a pregnancy in that timeframe and sobbed with broken hearts. I have been there; all of my pregnancies were badly wanted. But it is not autonomous, it is not a stand alone being until viability, it has no cognition, a pregnancy up to 12 weeks cannot be without the mother and to force a woman to incubate a pregnancy against her will and to the detriment of her health is wrong. I cannot fathom how people on one hand can be so passionate about saving potential lives while endorsing a law that endangers the actual lives of women who are already born.

You are being asked to repeal a law that ties doctors hands and disallows them from performing their lifesaving duties, the trade off is this. Medical termination, where necessary, well within the time limits of viability. This proposed regime will still be one of the most restrictive in the world.

Nobody ever wants an abortion. Nobody ever wants to be pregnant against their will. Anybody who tells you that there is a straight black and white answer to every problem in life is not living in the real world. Life is chaotic and messy. This option is the middle ground. Choice. The option to take it if you need it and leave it if you don’t.