Co-hosted by the Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th and the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, this public meeting focuses on Article 40.3.3 as a workplace, class, equality and human rights issue. The trade union movement has an extensive history of championing those who are denied full equality. Without the right to make decisions about their bodies, women and girls in Ireland are second class citizens. This event explores how Ireland’s largest civil society movement can help to change that.

Chaired by Ailbhe Smyth, convenor of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, our meeting opens with an overview by Dr Fiona Bloomer of the groundbreaking Abortion as a Workplace Issue: A Trade Union Survey North and South of Ireland.

Maggie Ryan of the TUCR8A, which has long identified the 8th as a workplace issue, explains why that is the case.

Community and reproductive rights activist Cathleen O’Neill examines the 8th Amendment as a further erosion of the lot of working class women.

Mags O’Brien of the ICTU Global Solidarity Committee focuses on abortion as a human rights issue.

Emily Waszak of Strike4Repeal and Migrant and Ethnic Minorities for Reproductive Justice gives Article 40.3.3 a comprehensive equality audit.