SIPTU is among over 100 civil society organisations, trade unions, politicians and academics supporting a rally at the Central Bank, Dublin, on Monday, 4th March, at 6.30 p.m., calling on the Government to legislate for the X case before the summer. At a press conference in Dublin on Friday, 1st March, Action for X spokesperson, Alison Spillane, said: “We are calling on the Government to produce legislation without unnecessary restrictions, so that women whose lives are at risk because of pregnancy, including the risk of suicide, have a real rather than theoretical access to abortion in Ireland.”SIPTU Campaigns and Equality Organiser, Ethel Buckley, said: “Our union campaigns for fairness at work and justice in society. We view the issue of reproductive rights and women’s access to quality healthcare services as fundamental human rights. The reality in this country is that there is no impediment to men seeking and obtaining any required medical intervention to protect their health, quality of life or life. At present the same can not be said of women in this State.”“In November 2012, in the days after the tragic death of Savita Halappanaver, the National Executive Council of SIPTU unanimously called for the Government to legislate to give effect to the Supreme Court judgment in the X Case.“We are calling on SIPTU members to support Monday night’s rally and to demand that the Government lives up to it’s commitment to the earliest possible deadline for the publication of legalisation and to its swift passage through the Oireachtas,” she said.Among the other organisations supporting the Rally for X are the ICTU Women’s Committee, National Women’s Council of Ireland and AkiDwa (national network of migrant women living in Ireland).
SIPTU supports rally for X case legalisation
