(1947-)
Irish independence fighter and civil rights leader. In 1969, at 21, she was the youngest ever elected Member of Parliament, and sat as an independent socialist. She survived being shot 14 times in a British government-linked assassination attempt in 1981
“The issue of repeal of the Eighth Amendment is actually not even an issue about abortion. It is fundamentally in this case about abortion. But it is at its core, in the 21st Century, a demand that the last usurpation of authority of the individual human being, be ended. That is the usurpation of a woman's right to control of her own body. To exercise first and last authority over that individual body. All day. Every day that she is alive. Not simply when she is a pregnant woman…
Let us be clear that the demand of the end of usurpation, the demand for our right to control our bodies, to make our own reproductive system, is not a favour we are asking for certain circumstances. It is a fundamental defense of democracy for every person..."
Excerpts from a speech at a prochoice rally in Dublin, Ireland in 2017 prior to the tremendous victory by popular referendum of the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in 2018, which revoked the Constitutional ban on abortion in Ireland.
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