Tag Archives: self-abort

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Pro-choice supporters in Dublin last October

Abortion Support Network, which was founded in 2009 and is based in England, helps Irish women pay for their trips to England or Wales—via donations from supporters—and finds them accommodation, if necessary.

Mara Clarke, director of ASN, says the organization hears stories from Irish women who were initially unaware of the group’s existence and who had tried to terminate their pregnancies.

“We are told, ‘I’ve been Googling ways to self-abort,'” Clarke says. “We had a woman who went out and bought heroin; she’s not a drug user, but she thought it might cause a miscarriage. We had a mother of four who said, ‘I’m trying to think of ways to crash my car so I miscarry but don’t die.’

Women tell us they have drunk bleach and floor cleaner or swallowed packets of birth control pills and a bottle of spirits. We always tell the women not to do it and that they should let us give them the money.”

In Catholic Ireland, Battle Lines Drawn Over Abortion As Election Looms (Newsweek, Mirren Gida)

Previously: Illegal Abortion In Ireland

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews