Skip to main content

Huge demonstration for reproductive rights in city centre as Rally for Choice comes to Belfast


This article originally appeared in The Tab here.

Source: All photos my own.


Yesterday saw close to a thousand people take to the streets of Belfast to march in the city’s second ever Rally for Choice, in support of abortion reform across Ireland. Taking place two weeks after the sixth annual March for Choice in Dublin, the City Centre was awash in a sea of purple as people of all ages, genders and sexualities united to call for an end to the outdated and discriminatory abortion laws which harm pregnant people in the North and beyond.
Assembling at Buoy Park, the procession made its way through the City Centre past the City Hall, before finishing in the Cathedral Quarter with a series of guest speakers. Marching to a slightly different drum beat than Belfast residents are used to, hundreds lined the streets in solidarity with the protesters who led chants of “Get your rosaries off my ovaries”, “Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide” and “Hey mister, get your laws off my sister!”

Supporters got creative with their banners, many homemade, sporting slogans such as ‘Patriarchy is for Dicks’ and ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Human Rights’. Support came in the form of feminist collectives from across the country, as far as Galway and Kerry, and politically from People Before Profit, the Green Party and the Workers’ Party.
Behind the huge Rally for Choice banner, marchers donned purple clothing, hairstyles and makeup in support of the movement, as well as some in Victorian dress, asking the question – ‘The times have moved on – why haven’t we?’ As a police escort guided the protest through the city, grenades of colourful smoke filled the air above the procession, bringing the City Centre to a standstill.

In Northern Ireland, abortion law is still governed by the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which punishes terminating an unwanted pregnancy with a sentence of up to life in prison. This draconic legislation predates the invention of the light bulb and even the end of slavery in the US, yet still punishes women today for a healthcare service which is available in other parts of the UK under the 1967 Abortion Act. Similarly, the Republic’s Eighth Amendment equates the life of the mother with an embryo or foetus, ranking among the strictest abortion laws in Europe. 
Rally for Choice Ireland seeks to change this: the decriminalisation of abortion is not enough. Whilst the news of free abortions on the NHS for Northern Irish women in Britain are welcomed, the organisation will not stop campaigning until free, safe and legal abortions are available on the island of Ireland. Those unable to travel or those who choose to abort at home through the use of pills are discriminated against under current laws, which have been condemned internationally and do not reflect public opinion. In light of the recent Tory-DUP deal, Rally for Choice believes that now is the time to act.

The incredible atmosphere at the Rally for Choice marked the group as a commanding force for change in Ireland. People are no longer willing to accept the bigoted treatment they receive from Stormont and have taken to the streets to actively do something about it. The cries of “Women must decide their fate” will ring in politicians’ ears as the movement for Irish abortion rights only continues to grow.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt - John Frusciante

Dedicated to Clara Balzary, bandmate Flea's daughter (Source: wikipedia.org) "My smile is a rifle, won't you give it a try?" The first time I listened to Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was in the back of my family’s campervan parked in Calais after we’d just been robbed. I hadn’t listened to it – or any of Frusciante’s narcotic haze of nineties releases – since, preferring his more polished offerings of To Record Only Water for Ten Days and Shadows Collide With People , until my sister bought me a copy of Niandra Lades for my birthday. My main memories of the album were Frusciante’s wails making me jump as I tried to drift off with my headphones in. So, safe to say, I was a little apprehensive upon receiving this gift.      Although released in 1994, the first half of the album – Niandra Lades – was recorded prior to Frusciante’s departure from the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik at the allegedly haunted ...
12 comments
Read more

Beats and Bombs: The Story of Belfast Rap

Rat Out Records' event at The Sunflower (Source: my own) Belfast is famous for many things – ships, conflict, Van Morrison – but not quite hip-hop. Unlike the other Irish cities which have spawned the likes of Dublin duo Versatile or Limerick’s The Rubberbandits , the subculture hasn’t gained the same notoriety and recognition in the North. As a genre created by African Americans in 1970s New York, it may be fairly easy to see why the Irish brand of rap hasn’t exactly had the same level of success. Despite this, Northern Ireland is by no means lacking in musical talent; the region has produced big names like The Undertones, Snow Patrol and Two Door Cinema Club. Even on a more grassroots level, the local indie rock and folk scenes in Belfast and Derry are booming. While it may seem that we prefer our music with a catchy chorus and three chords, Belfast’s underground rap scene is alive and kicking if you’re prepared to look for it. A simple Soundcloud or Bandcamp search ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Title: Just Kids Author: Patti Smith Publisher: Bloomsbury (2010) ★★★★★ “No one expected me. Everything awaited me.” I almost always find that the best part of an autobiography is the beginning: the writer’s youth. Once they’re rich and famous, it’s not nearly as interesting a read. Strictly speaking, Just Kids isn’t an autobiography, it’s a memoir: “…a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies…a true fable…a portrait of two young artists’ ascent”. Although I am a fan, I knew very little about Patti Smith’s personal life, and the very fact that there is little mention of her music career somehow cements the book’s appeal for me. Just Kids details Smith’s love affair with photographer and fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe during New York of the late sixties and early seventies: the time of Andy Warhol’s Factory stars and drag queens, musical revolution, psychedelia and, of course, drugs. A little like Morrissey’s autobiographical offering, Just Kids...
Post a Comment
Read more