Pro-choice group put banner advertising abortion pills on Galway Cathedral

RobYourBuilder

A GROUP OF pro-choice campaigners placed a banner advertising abortion pills on Galway Cathedral yesterday morning.

The recently-formed Díobháil group placed the banner, which advises women on where they can procure pills which induce miscarriages, on the cathedral yesterday at 7am.

It remained there until after 11am.

A spokesperson for the group today told TheJournal.ie that they are aiming to spread the word on the pills.

“The main aim was to spread the message of Women on Web. They are a really good women’s organisation that help women in countries with oppressive abortion laws.

“Otherwise, women are forced to travel abroad. Some women can’t afford that, some are asylum seekers.

“We’re interested in sex education and reproductive justice, as well as the role of the church in Irish laws.

“When we look at these issues, we see that they’re all connected.”

Crucially, the group says that the pills are safe, if taken before nine weeks into the pregnancy.

“They are very, very safe used up to nine weeks. We advise people to go to hospital if there is any complications.

“There is no difference between the pills and a miscarriage.”

Wendy Grace of the Pro Life Campaign, however, accused the group of a publicity stunt.

“These types of initiatives appear to be more concerned with garnering publicity for the pro-choice cause rather than a genuine regard for women’s health and wellbeing.

“The groups involved have no regard for the humanity of the unborn child and no interest in drawing attention to the fact that abortion has significant negative health consequences for many women.

“It’s no surprise that none of those advocating these dangerous pills, mention abortion pills even when used under supervision can be dangerous, for example In 2011 Jessie Barlow a 19 year old from Surrey died following an abortion using abortion pills. She died five weeks after her abortion and just five days before Christmas.”

http://www.thejournal.ie/abortion-pills-banner-put-on-galway-cathedral-1819871-Dec2014/

Although the church are opposed to the pills, its not them stopping their sale. It’s the state. Would this type of action not be more apt outside Leinster House? 

The new feminist group in question seem to be a bit out there.

Díobháil: The Galway Radical Feminist Network. "Smashing the heteronormative, patriarchal, white-supremacist, imperialist, ableist capitalist system."

Sounds like a parody of a tumblr group.

Thoughts?

   

RadharcAilainn

Aren't they great.

Grayson

Did you need to paste it twice.

Wendy Grace of the Pro Life Campaign, however, accused the group of a publicity stunt.

Well duh.

PucaMama

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/abortion-pills-banner-put-on-galway-cathedral-1819871-Dec2014/

Díobháil: The Galway Radical Feminist Network. "Smashing the heteronormative, patriarchal, white-supremacist, imperialist, ableist capitalist system."

Sounds like a parody of a tumblr group.

Thoughts?

   

this is what happens when these types have unsupervised access to the internet. i dont even know where to begin. :mad::mad::mad:

as for their little stunt, such attention seeking acting up needs to be ignored.

Red Alert

I notice TheJournal putting its usual anti-Catholic spin on the story as well. Forget that this place is a church, this group entered property that they weren't permitted to enter and hung something on it - that's not what reasonable people do, that's the same as scumbags who daub graffiti on bus shelters do.

qt3.14

Jesse Barlow died of infective encardititis which carries a fatality risk of about one in ten thousand. The inquest found no contribution from the abortifacient.

lennyloulou

I am pro choice.
However I get tired of the blatant aggressive methods often used by the pro choice group... ultimately it does them no favours in the public eye!

Red Alert

lennyloulou wrote: »

I am pro choice.
However I get tired of the blatant aggressive methods often used by the pro choice group... ultimately it does them no favours in the public eye!

Exactly- they've pretty much sunk to the level of the extreme pro-life groups. There are many many pro-choice Catholics as well, don't forget.

Straylight

Red Alert wrote: »

I notice TheJournal putting its usual anti-Catholic spin on the story as well. Forget that this place is a church, this group entered property that they weren't permitted to enter and hung something on it - that's not what reasonable people do, that's the same as scumbags who daub graffiti on bus shelters do.

I agree. I'm not in any way religious, but at the same time I do respect the right of others to practice whatever religion they like in peace. Having people use someone else's place of worship for a publicity stunt like this is just wrong imo.

Díobháil: The Galway Radical Feminist Network. "Smashing the heteronormative, patriarchal, white-supremacist, imperialist, ableist capitalist system."

I'm sure they've missed something there. Is it carnivorous?

Nodin

Straylight wrote: »

I agree. I'm not in any way religious, but at the same time I do respect the right of others to practice whatever religion they like in peace. Having people use someone else's place of worship for a publicity stunt like this is just wrong imo.



I'm sure they've missed something there. Is it carnivorous?

"penis wielding" I'd say.

anncoates

Is the meaning of Díobháil really what my translate tells me?

Simi

Red Alert wrote: »

Exactly- they've pretty much sunk to the level of the extreme pro-life groups. There are many many pro-choice Catholics as well, don't forget.

I don't think sticking a banner on a church really equates to shoving pictures of aborted fetus's in people's faces.

RobYourBuilder

Simi wrote: »

I don't think sticking an information leaflet to a noticeboard really equates to shoving pictures of aborted fetus's in people's faces.

Except that they didn't stick an information leaflet to a noticeboard leaflet, but flew a banner from a Cathedral after breaking and entering into the building.

Cantremember

Díobháil: The Galway Radical Feminist Network. "Smashing the heteronormative, patriarchal, white-supremacist, imperialist, ableist capitalist system."

So. Homosomething, extra or non normative, matriarchal so bi something, coloured inferiorist, disabled communist anarchists are acceptable.

wtf?

Simi

RobYourBuilder wrote: »

Except that they didn't stick an information leaflet to a noticeboard leaflet, but flew a banner from a Cathedral after breaking and entering into the building.

Yeah I should have read the story first. My bad.

Mr. Incognito

Id rather that than the posters of aborted foetuses the pro life camp foist on pedestrians on o connell street.

There would be no need for this if the government grew up and called an abortion referendum and let the population vote besides vulnerable young women having to travel in secret and in stigma

Joeseph Balls

Pro choice myself and didnt one pro choice groups use the pills as an argument? Seemingly if not prescribed right they can be very dangerous. Women are buying them on the net when they shouldn't have to go down that route.
A stupid group doing more harm to the pro choice lobby than good.

volchitsa

Red Alert wrote: »

I notice TheJournal putting its usual anti-Catholic spin on the story as well. Forget that this place is a church, this group entered property that they weren't permitted to enter and hung something on it - that's not what reasonable people do, that's the same as scumbags who daub graffiti on bus shelters do.

Really? Would you say the same about anti-segregation posters during the US civil rights marches? All such protest is really the same as "scumbags" painting graffiti?

The_Valeyard

I thought it was a banner for a raffle of event of some sort. No idea it was some pro abortion thinge.

Since these people contacted thejournal.ie I presume the gardai were also informed like the way they handed over footage of the cross cut down?

Turtwig

Seriously I can't tell if that pro choice group is a Poe or not.

Don Kedick

I like this group, more groups like this are emerging all the time. There really is a huge swell of disaffected people starting to organise themselves. It's only going to grow further.

In Lonesome Dove

How in the holy name of God, did they get that sign up there?

I'm pro choice but what they did there, I think is wrong. I don't know what their aim was of doing that but if that was a form of protest, it's poor.

volchitsa

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

Pro choice myself and didnt one pro choice groups use the pills as an argument? Seemingly if not prescribed right they can be very dangerous. Women are buying them on the net when they shouldn't have to go down that route.
A stupid group doing more harm to the pro choice lobby than good.

But they aren't the ones preventing women in Ireland from getting access to these pills other than on the net - the pro-choice ones are the ones who did that.

And then they pretend to care that women are nevertheless buying them on internet and taking them without supervision. But the truth is that pregnancy is as dangerous as taking these pills, more for some women.

So if anyone really cares about the risk women go through, they will first be agitating against the 8th amendment that says that a pregnant woman must be in danger of death before she can access an abortion. Ignoring that while claiming to worry about the safety of these pills is pure hypocrisy.

Morag

lennyloulou wrote: »

I am pro choice.
However I get tired of the blatant aggressive methods often used by the pro choice group... ultimately it does them no favours in the public eye!

I do think this was out of line, what else have you seen that you consider aggressive methods?

shruikan2553

Probably not the best place to do it.

FullblownRose

If it could save women from having to make an undignified, expensive and traumatic journey abroad for the same purpose then people should be made aware of it. There aren't many ways of raising awareness so I can see why they would do it that way.
As long as the banner did not have any kind of graphic imagery or wording - but that's usually more the style of the 'pro life' groups.

Morag

volchitsa wrote: »

But they aren't the ones preventing women in Ireland from getting access to these pills other than on the net - the pro-choice ones are the ones who did that.

And then they pretend to care that women are nevertheless buying them on internet and taking them without supervision. But the truth is that pregnancy is as dangerous as taking these pills, more for some women.

So if anyone really cares about the risk women go through, they will first be agitating against the 8th amendment that says that a pregnant woman must be in danger of death before she can access an abortion. Ignoring that while claiming to worry about the safety of these pills is pure hypocrisy.

The pills are on the World health orgs list of essential medicines, they have been used to end pregnancies in the 1st trimester from 1988 in France and 2000 in the USA, they are used gobally by women end to safely end a pregnancy.

Yes ideally they should not be taken with out medical supervision but women get all the information and directions they need to take them safely.

What else are women going to do if they can't travel go back using knitting needles?

Links234

You know, say what you want about it being a publicity stunt, or "aggressive", I find it worrying that they're guiding women towards how to get abortion pills off the internet and that's seriously kinda dodgy. This is something that should be done under the supervision of trained medical staff. All the more reason for proper reproductive healthcare that covers abortion in this country, so that desperate folks don't have to turn to this.

Ghost Buster

shruikan2553 wrote: »

Probably not the best place to do it.

Oh I don't know. The work place of the asexual virgin men who like to issue guidelines
On sex, marriage and family seems like a good spot

Morag

Links234 wrote: »

You know, say what you want about it being a publicity stunt, or "aggressive", I find it worrying that they're guiding women towards how to get abortion pills off the internet and that's seriously kinda dodgy. This is something that should be done under the supervision of trained medical staff. All the more reason for proper reproductive healthcare that covers abortion in this country, so that desperate folks don't have to turn to this.

If they were directing women to a site which was not womenonweb or womenhelp.org then I would be worried.

Both those sites ofer an online medical consultation, an actual persecribtion which is filled by a licensed pharmacist, with the same pills which our pharmacists hand over the counter here for a range of reasons, but can not hand them over to end a pregnancy.

I have read the guides both womenonweb and womenhelp send out with the directions on how to take the series of pill correctly and at the right times needed and what symptoms are normal and expected and what ones mean seek medical help right away.

If I despite my best efforts, ended up pregnant I would have no hesitation using womenonweb or womenhelp, if my 14 year old daughter was raped and ended up pregnant I would also be contacting womenonweb or womenhelp.

volchitsa

Links234 wrote: »

You know, say what you want about it being a publicity stunt, or "aggressive", I find it worrying that they're guiding women towards how to get abortion pills off the internet and that's seriously kinda dodgy. This is something that should be done under the supervision of trained medical staff. All the more reason for proper reproductive healthcare that covers abortion in this country, so that desperate folks don't have to turn to this.

But in the meantime women are buying these pills anyway, so it seems to me it is safer to tell women the truth, that these are usually very safe, and how to know when to go to the hospital if there is a problem.

For instance, not many pro-life groups pretending to care about women's health would ever say that in fact you can go to the doctor after having induced a miscarriage with these and the doctor cannot know that it wasn't a spontaneous miscarriage. Only the pro choice groups really want to inform women, the others only want to scaremonger, and don't care about women's health at all.

Pumpkinseeds

They could've picked a more user friendly name, I'm an Irish woman and I've no idea how to pronounce it.:D

PucaMama

Morag wrote: »

If they were directing women to a site which was not womenonweb or womenhelp.org then I would be worried.

Both those sites ofer an online medical consultation, an actual persecribtion which is filled by a licensed pharmacist, with the same pills which our pharmacists hand over the counter here for a range of reasons, but can not hand them over to end a pregnancy.

I have read the guides both womenonweb and womenhelp send out with the directions on how to take the series of pill correctly and at the right times needed and what symptoms are normal and expected and what ones mean seek medical help right away.

If I despite my best efforts, ended up pregnant I would have no hesitation using womenonweb or womenhelp, if my 14 year old daughter was raped and ended up pregnant I would also be contacting womenonweb or womenhelp.

there are other, permanent, ways to avoid pregnancy without abortion.

Manach

Perhaps the abortionists need to co-op religion. I believe certain beliefs, such as the ancient Punic's Baal, were positively encouraged to sacrifice the new born. They are simply taking in one stage further by ridding themselves of the next generation.

Ghost Buster

PucaMama wrote: »

there are other, permanent, ways to avoid pregnancy without abortion.

At the risk of stating the obvious, abortion doesn't avoid pregnancy but comes about as a result of pregnancy. What point are you making?

volchitsa

PucaMama wrote: »

there are other, permanent, ways to avoid pregnancy without abortion.

I presume you mean sterilisation. I don't know whether you realize that the main complication with sterilisation, excepting the initial surgery, is pregnancy?

Morag

PucaMama wrote: »

there are other, permanent, ways to avoid pregnancy without abortion.

And?

Death is one of them, a hysterectomy is another, anything other then those two are not 100% effective.

Ghost Buster

volchitsa wrote: »

I presume you mean sterilisation. I don't know whether you realize that the main complication with sterilisation, excepting the initial surgery, is pregnancy?

Isn't that a sin?

volchitsa

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Isn't that a sin?

I don't think we need to worry about that. For some unfathomable reason, Boards and other Irish forums seem to be full of atheist but nevertheless pro-life people, all of whom by amazing coincidence have come to pretty much identical beliefs about abortion as those taught by the Catholic Church.

Tis a miracle!

feargale

Simi wrote: »

I don't think sticking a banner on a church really equates to shoving pictures of aborted fetus's in people's faces.

Give us the name of a person whose face was assaulted by this activity.

volchitsa

Morag wrote: »

And?

Death is one of them, a hysterectomy is another, anything other then those two are not 100% effective.

Make that just one - death. Even a hysterectomy is not 100% effective in preventing pregnancy. http://surgery.about.com/od/aftersurgery/f/HysterectomyPre.htm

PucaMama

volchitsa wrote: »

Make that just one - death. Even a hysterectomy is not 100% effective in preventing pregnancy. http://surgery.about.com/od/aftersurgery/f/HysterectomyPre.htm

the issue seems to be intact ovaries, so have them removed also

feargale

FullblownRose wrote: »

As long as the banner did not have any kind of graphic imagery or wording - but that's usually more the style of the 'pro life' groups.

And should they also ban those pictures of half dead prisoners taken when Auschwicz and other camps were liberated?

Morag

PucaMama wrote: »

the issue seems to be intact ovaries, so have them removed also

it's hard enough to get a tubal ligation in this country never mind getting the ovaries removed.

and what if a person wants to have children later on in life?
Or has a child already and is trying to space them out?

volchitsa

PucaMama wrote: »

the issue seems to be intact ovaries, so have them removed also

That's stupid and dangerous advice, removal of the ovaries causes immediate premature menopause with all the side effects of the menopause, and an increased risk of osteoporosis and endometrial cancer. It should only be done for a genuine medical indication.

PucaMama

Morag wrote: »

it's hard enough to get a tubal ligation in this country never mind getting the ovaries removed.

and what if a person wants to have children later on in life?
Or has a child already and is trying to space them out?

if they want children at some stage its hardly the end of the world to have them a little earlier. thats life it doesnt always go to plan.

also, plenty of people go abroad for cheaper cosmetic surgeries so that could be done

FactCheck

PucaMama wrote: »

the issue seems to be intact ovaries, so have them removed also

The odds of complications from surgery to remove one's womb and ovaries are significantly higher than the odds of complications from taking mifepristone and misoprostol as directed before 10 weeks.

Here is a very interesting New York Times article about the doctors behind Women On Web.

ProLife

volchitsa wrote: »

That's stupid and dangerous advice, removal of the ovaries causes immediate premature menopause with all the side effects of the menopause, and an increased risk of osteoporosis and endometrial cancer. It should only be done for a genuine medical indication.

You mean a woman is better off having kids when she's 24, rather than 44?

Makes sense.

For Forks Sake

ProLife wrote: »

So basically, an anti-life group broke the law by disregarding:

- Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, 1994, Section 11 (trespass)
- Prohibition Of Incitement To Hatred Act, 1989

Thugs and bigots should be locked up. Feminists pretend to represent women who have been raped. I'd like to to see how they like the soap on a rope on the inside.

I suspect you may have a vested interest. Don't exactly know why.....but my spidey-senses are tingling

PucaMama

volchitsa wrote: »

That's stupid and dangerous advice, removal of the ovaries causes immediate premature menopause with all the side effects of the menopause, and an increased risk of osteoporosis and endometrial cancer. It should only be done for a genuine medical indication.

menopause is the goal if you want to remove all chances of a pregnancy

jam_mac_jam

PucaMama wrote: »

menopause is the goal if you want to remove all chances of a pregnancy

Do you actually have any remote clue about what you are talking about here? You are really doing your arguement no favours. You are making no sense. At all. You should get your ovaries removed to be sure you don't get pregnant.....wow just wow