Over 100 people gathered outside Gianna Care, the rogue ‘pregnancy counselling’ clinic on Dorset Street, to express their anger and disgust after their bogus service was exposed by a journalist, who went undercover as a pregnant woman seeking advice for her crisis pregnancy.

The journalists video ( https://youtu.be/LUVvqWfdRbU ) was released to the public, who could hear for themselves all sorts of nonsense, such as the claim that abortion led to the development of breast cancer, that women could have difficulty bonding with a child in the future after an abortion and ridiculous stories of women having all of their reproductive organs removed during the procedure.

It sounds rather laughable, but is not that surprising considering the horrific violation of women’s reproductive rights embedded in Irish law. This manifests in the absence of choice and support to vulnerable women who seek termination of their pregnancies.

A number of speakers from Abortion Rights Campaign, Parents for Choice and political parties expressed their outrage and frustration with the current situation, where the 8th Amendment in the Irish Constitution gives to the foetus equal rights to the woman carrying the pregnancy, stripping her of her right to bodily integrity.

Therefore, if a woman in crisis wants to terminate she must go abroad to the UK for the medical procedure.

The necessity for the regulation of the services providing support and information in cases of crisis pregnancies was emphasised by the speakers, as well as the need to remove the dogmatic and damaging lies from the narrative surrounding abortion, imposed by religious institutions.

Ahead of the picket the organisers, Real-Productive Health, said;

“Anti-choice ‘counsellors’ who tell their clients that women who have had abortions are more prone to breast cancer or are in danger of engaging in child-abuse are beneath contempt.

It reveals the depths to which they will go in trying to fool women in crisis and the public generally, in order to deny women the right to control their own bodies. They are not pro-life, they are pro-lies.

"We challenge the anti-choice campaigners to denounce this service, and also to admit whatever connections may exist between them and fraudsters who peddle contemptible lies. This situation has arisen because women are denied the right to abortion services in Ireland. The Irish state continues to bury its head in the sand, all the while women are lied to, denied accurate information and denied access to safe and legal services in their own country. Ultimately, people who are pregnant are denied autonomy of their own body on the Island of Ireland (both North and South).

"Politicians must call a referendum to REPEAL THE EIGHTH AMMENDMENT and stop exporting the problem to England.

"Real-Productive Health calls on the women of Ireland and their pro-choice allies to stand up to these anti-choice bullies. We demand that they stop lying in order to deny Women the right to make choices about our own bodies, our futures and our lives.”

The chants were loud and strong. The sense of solidarity was present. “Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate!”.

Words: Irena