Hannah* was 14 when she was raped by her boyfriend.
After the rape, she became extremely depressed. Hannah tried to take her life and after that, her family kept her “on constant lockdown”.
A few months later, Hannah’s period had not arrived and her mother took her to the hospital.
“2 days before my 15th birthday, my mam took me to the doctor for him to ask me if I was pregnant.
I said no and he said ‘are you sure you’re not pregnant because this test says you are?'”
“I burst into tears with my mam. Bawling our eyes out. My mam asked for a letter for a referral to a women’s health clinic. He looked at me in disgust and said ‘no this is your mess, you deal with it.”
Hannah and her mother were both distressed and upset. Hannah begged her mother not to tell her dad.
“Later on that day I tell my mam what really happened, and she’s in bits thinking about it. I explained to my dad and he said ‘you did it for attention’.”
The following day Hannah had to go to the hospital for a scan. Her mother asked the doctor not to show the scan to her but Hannah says they kept trying to and in the end, her mother covered her face.
“The doctor wouldn’t speak to me, like I wasn’t even there”.
Hannah’s mother organised for her to have an abortion in Liverpool.
“The next day I woke up and it was time. All I remember is waking up in puddles of blood with my mam not in sight. I was terrified to be alone.”
“Later on that day I was flying home could barely walk, I was that sore. Eventually I got home and a few days later I got very sick. I went to hospital only for child services to be called and me to nearly be removed from my parents custody.”
Speaking to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the 8th amendment Dr Maeve Eogan, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Rotunda Hospital, Medical Director of the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) at the Rotunda Hospital and National SATU Services said that 5 percent of rape victims become pregnant as a result of rape.
Dr Eogan told the committee that there is no way to physically prove rape, adding, “there is no conclusive test that women who are pregnant after rape could or should be subjected to.”
The JOC recognised the “complexities inherent in legislating for the termination of pregnancy for reasons of rape or other sexual assault” and came to view allowing the option of an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is the most compassionate, reasonable and straightforward way to support women and girls who choose to end a pregnancy that is the result of rape.
The majority of countries in Europe offer access to abortions up to 12 weeks, with access up to 14 weeks in Romania and Spain, 18 weeks in Sweden and up to viability in the Netherlands.
Most women who have abortions do so before 12 weeks. But Irish women have later abortions due to the need to raise money, organise international travel and make appointments abroad.
In 2016, 69 percent of women who gave Republic of Ireland addresses to clinics accessed abortion care between 3-9 weeks’ gestation, compared to 81 percent of women resident in the UK.
Together For Yes has published a position paper outlining their reasons for supporting access up to 12 weeks. They say that removing the 8th amendment “will allow for the provision of compassionate, non-judgemental care to women and girls who are pregnant as a result of rape.”
Hannah says if she hadn’t been able to have an abortion she, “would not be alive today, I would not be in college today studying business…because I know I couldn’t have done it.”
*Hannah’s name has been changed to protect her identity. Hannah’s* story was first printed in “In Her Shoes” and is reprinted here with their permission.
