Grandmother Knows Best…?

Carol 7APR18

or some, it’s a simple matter of life and death…

For others, Ireland’s upcoming abortion referendum is a far more serious affair.

For pretty much everyone, abortion is a deeply personal issue, and one that can often involve conflicting values. On the surface, it would seem a simple case of every woman having the right to choose when it comes to their own pregnancy. Take a look around though – especially on the shouting match that is social media – and it’s clear that but there are layers upon layers at play when it comes to the issues surrounding abortion in this country.

And, just as everyone who’s voting No on May 25th isn’t a flat-cap-wearing, priest-hugging, rosary-bead-snorting, pitchfork-waving carnivore, not everyone who’s voting Yes is a hemp-wearing, tree-hugging, hummus-snorting, swimming-with-the-refugees vegan.

The arguments on both sides of the Eight Amendment are strongly held, even when they’re somewhat misleading and misguided. At the recent North Wicklow Together For Choice fundraising event at The Hot Spot, a group of pro-life protestors known as Love Both were handing out leaflets outside, with a Q&A section to help people make up their mind on the referendum. The one that stood out for most people was the Yes/No option, ‘I am completely comfortable with the fact that most of the groups who lobbied for abortion in Ireland are atheists, radical feminists, Marxists, humanists or pagans (at least one member of the Government)‘, with the footnote, ‘By and large, these various categories support the morality of the New World Order which utterly rejects traditional Christian values‘.

Yowsa. Tom Cruise would be proud. Be interesting to know what our Yes minister, Simon Harris TD, would make of such claims, given that this god-denying, Marxist, humanist, radical feminist pagan was speaking that night.

And will he able to stop abortion being available at every petrol station in the country by the end of the year…?

As claims of misinformation, false horror stories and various other flavours of false news are levelled at both sides of the arguments – ah, the internet! – we thought it would be wise to hear both sides of the argument here in Greystones.

Tomorrow, we should have an an op-ed piece for the No vote; today, it’s the turn of Carol Hunter, one of the founders of Grandparents 4 Repeal…

You can follow Grandparents For Repeal on Facebook here, or get in touch on [email protected]. You can read Aine Kieran’s No vote argument here, and watch our messy but revealing barney with No campaigners descending upon Greystones here, whilst GG reader Anna Glover asked us to include this link – for balance – here.