By Mary Ann Sorrentino
The impressive show of strength by Irish voters on the abortion prohibition referendum speaks once more to the determination of reasonable people to recognize and empower every woman to make ultimately personal decisions regarding her childbearing in ultimate privacy.
The landslide vote to strike down that longstanding ban, though being touted as a slap in the face of the Roman Catholic Church, is more importantly testimony to the global recognition of the rights of women – finally! Of course in a country where Magdalene Laundries abused and held sexually active young girls in indentured servitude, there is sure to be more than the usual justified anger directed at Rome and her enforcers. But recent history shows that the successful politicizing of female rage against the curia has been operational for some time.
In 1978 in the shadow of the Vatican, Italians also turned out in large numbers to legalize abortion in Italy, my dual-citizenship home. They returned – 68% of voters strong—in 1981 when a referendum to re-criminalize abortion was rejected by 88.4% of those voting. So women have stopped allowing the Pope to control their most basic ability to survive and thrive.
What we see today is the global celebration of freedom this week in Ireland-- a front page story around the world, and overwhelmingly a congratulatory one. Doomsayers on the far Right will have to get used to women’s ultimate liberation, empowered by control of their own fertility.
Poignantly, for us in the United States-- a nation once revered for its love of individual liberty and separation of Church and State now struggling not to fall into total fascist mode, the victory in Ireland underscores what we Americans must never relinquish. Like yours, too many of our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, wives, lovers and other women we loved, paid with their lives for illegal abortions. Many -- unable to afford a wanted termination beyond their local borders—had a child they often could not care for nor afford to raise. Still others had a child and gave it for adoption; a wonderful choice for those able to freely take that difficult step without suffering a lifetime of wondering, questioning, and painful self-accusing.
So today, from across the Atlantic, we take strength in Ireland’s example. You make us remember how important it is—and how necessary—to stand up to the (still mostly) male establishment signing laws that hurt and devalue women. We salute our brothers and sisters in Erin and we set out now holding your example close to our hearts for the challenges we may face in the near future. Mostly, we thank Ireland for the wonderful spiritual lift and inspiration your tenacity, energy and eventual victory give us and, from “across the pond” we embrace you and feel that great energy of your commitment to all of us.
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Mary Ann Sorrentino is a monthly writer for the Providence Journal (Rhode Island, USA) and other papers. From 1977-1987 she was President of Planned Parenthood of RI which opened the first free-standing abortion clinic in that state. In 1984 she was publicly excommunicated from the Catholic Church after her parish tried, unsuccessfully, to deny confirmation to her then 14 year-old-daughter. Sorrentino remains a strong advocate for women’s right to choose – everywhere.
