Repeal the 8th Campaign launched on Trinity College campus

Week 1 saw an Amnesty petition in the arts block; week 2 will see a panel of experts on the subject.

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Amnesty International’s ‘My Body, My Rights’ campaign was launched in the Arts block this Monday by the Trinity branch of Amnesty and Trinity College Students’ Union, as part of the SU campaign to repeal the 8th.

The Amnesty campaign is actively focused in several countries whose governments restrict reproductive rights; in Ireland, it is specifically focused on repealing the 8th Amendment. The SU have been mandated to campaign on this issue since a campus-wide referendum in 2013.

Amnesty and TCDSU volunteers asked students to sign a petition to repeal the 8th alongside two creative installations meant to demonstrate the campaign’s message. They displayed a custom criminal lineup to illustrate than a person requesting an abortion is not a criminal. There was also a table maze which students could try to complete which showed the difficulties faced by those seeking abortion rights in Ireland.

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In a press statement to Trinity News, DU Amnesty stated that “the large turnout and huge enthusiasm seen at the March For Choice over the weekend illustrates the gathering momentum of the Repeal The 8th Campaign. We hope the continued domestic and international pressure from Amnesty International will help yield progress towards the decriminalisation of abortion in Ireland, and access to safe and legal abortion at least in the minimum circumstances human rights demand.”

As part of the Students’ Union’s campaign to repeal the 8th, a panel on reproductive rights will be held this Tuesday in the Edmund Burke theatre. Speakers for the event include Colm O’Gorman, chair of Amnesty Ireland; Dr Peadar O’Grady from Doctors for Choice; Roisín Ingle from the Irish Times and a speaker from the Coalition to Repeal the 8th. TCDSU president Lynn Ruane organised this event with the help of a pro-choice SU working group; campaigning against the 8th has been a central goal for her as president.

Dee Courtney

Dee was Online Editor of Trinity News and a senior sophister History and Political Science student.