Empowerment and Privacy? Home Use of Abortion Pills in the Republic of Ireland

Towards a political geography of abortion

“…At the highest point in 2001, eighteen women per day travelled from Ireland to England for abortion; as of 2016, that number had fallen to just under nine per day (IFPA, n.d.). This decrease in travel has been attributed to the increase in access to illegal abortion pills through online pro-choice networks which facilitate the distribution of pills inside Ireland (Sheldon, 2018). One online provider reported that, between 2010 and 2015, three to five women in Ireland requested abortion pills every day (Aiken et al, 2017).…”

“…At one time, Women on Web filled orders for abortion pills with an Indian pharmacy who shipped directly to the destination country, but as customs agencies began to seize packages from online pharmacies, activists developed alternative strategies (Bazelon, 2014;Gomperts, 2017). In some cases, Women on Web affiliates fill the prescriptions legally in European pharmacies and re-package the pills before sending them onwards; sometimes the packages can be sent through to states without legal abortion, while in other cases they are sent to neighboring states and physically smuggled across the border by local activists (Gomperts, 2017;Sheldon, 2016;Sheldon, 2018). Depending on the destination country and its laws, the organization modifies shipping routes or draws on local activist networks to move pills to the women who request them.…”

“…5 However, state responses to the influx of illegal abortion pills are not uniform. Some states, like the Republic of Ireland, have responded with a "choreographed ignorance" and unwillingness to prosecute individual women (Sheldon, 2018). By contrast, authorities in Northern Ireland have prosecuted several people for the crime of procuring abortion pills.…”

“…In some Planned Parenthood facilities in the USA, the doctor can remotely unlock a medicine drawer in front of the patient and watch while she takes the prescribed pills (Yang and Kozhimannil, 2016). There is an important distinction between these different forms of telemedicine: the informal online telemedicine service provided by groups like Women on Web is generally regarded as illegal, because it provides abortion pills to women in states where abortion is a criminal offence (Sheldon, 2018). By contrast, legal telemedicine services like those in the USA operate in states were abortion is legally permitted but difficult to access.…”

Irish voters repealed the eighth: now it's time to ensure access to abortion care in law and in practice

“…4 Attempting dangerous abortions is a stark reality, and one woman has described 'trying to figure out how to crash my car to cause a miscarriage but not permanently injure myself or die'. 5 The case for removing criminal sanctions around women's access to safe abortion care, without exceptions, could not be clearer or more urgent.…”