LIMERICK-based Together For Safety co-chairs, Karen Sugrue and Yvie Murphy, have warned that a storm is sweeping away human and civil rights across Europe and has made landfall with the rise of the extreme right in Ireland.
The two human rights activists were in Brussels recently attending a European Parliament hearing on reproductive rights and the European Civic Academy.
Ms Sugrue told the Limerick Post that “it is clear that what happened outside the Dáil (last month) is not isolated to Ireland and reflects a very alarming rise in extremism and a corresponding roll back in hard won rights, starting with women and vulnerable groups right across Europe. People working on the ground are very worried”.
Ms Murphy, co-chair of Together for Safety, who are campaigning for Safe Access Zone legislation, said “we were delighted to be invited to Brussels to hear what is being discussed at European level”.
However, she continued, “the information coming from across Europe is that there is a roll back of rights in every country with the most vulnerable groups being targeted first”.
“Civil society groups from across Europe met to discuss the issues they are facing and every group, from every country, talked about the rise in extremism and the far right” she said.
Ms Murphy reported “a key issue raised was the barriers to access for reproductive health that are being put in place and maintained by stealth”.
“We know that anti-abortion protests and activities outside hospitals, GPs, and health centres constitute a significant barrier to access and put a chilling effect on provision of care,” she said.
Ms Sugrue said the group is “calling on the Minister for Health to immediately implement Safe Access Zone legislation, and the government to make it their priority to defend the rights that we have fought so long and hard to win”.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has promised to have Safe Access Zones in operation by the end of the year.
“We voted for safe access to abortion care in 2018 and, five years later, we still don’t have it,” Ms Murphy concluded.
