Thread by @Shane_Conneely

So a few weeks ago something happened to friends of mine that made a tough situation that they were going through even worse. They'd gone through the tragedy of getting a fatal foetal anomaly diagnosis only last year.

The campaign was kicking off, and they went away to take a break over Easter, coming home to find one of the "Licence to Kill" Embryo posters staring in the window at them. As parents who were grieving, and also caring for a 2 year old, and working, this was just too fucking much

Thankfully the wind removed the poster from outside their door and their world was a little lighter for it. But the added stress of it forced them to make their suffering public. Not able to grieve privately the cruel campaign of the NOs forced them to make their pain public

I don't know if the NO side understand the hurt that they are causing to so many people with their campaign, I hope that they don't. But it is profound, and so much more widespread than I had imagined

We were late finishing up our canvass last night because on the very last door that we knocked two of our canvassers met a woman in her sixties who had had an FFA in the early eighties, a pregnancy she carried to term without having another option

Our canvassers ended up spending about a half hour with this woman as she worked through painful emotions long submerged.

This woman didn't know how she stood on abortion because she had never really worked through how she felt about her own experience of FFA, and all the time an embryo poster stared down at her.

Every time she looks out the door there it is.

One thing that has surprised me about the last couple of months canvassing is how common these stories are. How often I'm meeting people who talk need to talk about the abortions that have been in their lives

There was another woman who's daughter had to get a termination because of an FFA. This woman has her own health problems and wasn't able to travel with her daughter. At the time her daughter needed her, the 8th held her back

"It's not right" she said, and she's right, it's not

There was another woman last night who wished she could have had an abortion. She had gotten pregnant she was an active heroin addict and wasn't able to bring the child she had into a life that was safe for them to live

I've heard stories of women with FFA's who abused themselves to induce miscarriages, support groups that can't trust the people who contact them to not be pro-life plants, and parents who can't trust support groups for fear that they might be pro-life plants

There's this lake of hurt and pain and tragedy that lies unseen beneath the superficial surface that people present to the world, and by god is it being stirred up by the harsh words and the ugly lies of the NO campaign

I really hope that those behind the NO campaign don't know what they are doing to these people; that they are so blinded by their zeal that they fail to see that pain; that they are so dulled by dogma that they cannot understand. The alternative to these hopes is awful, and evil

As the @Psychs4Choice for choice warned us earlier this week we are coming to the point in the campaign where the batteries are beginning to deplete, so I'm watchful of that among our canvassers, and also in myself, I'm taking tonight off, and going to the movies tomorrow

Which is not to say that canvassing is terrible, it can be wonderful, but it also can be hard. It is emotional and physical labour, so if you can you should share some of the load. Many with kids, or disabilities, or crazy working hours cannot. But if you can help you should

If you can't help canvass, maybe try and help a canvasser. Take them out for a bit of fun. Make sure that they eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, and that they are not living on takeaways. Chat to them about their experiences, so they've a chance to process them. All this helps

Make sure to thank the people you see at stalls and out knocking on doors, it gives such a lift on even the dampest and coldest of evenings. Send a pizza up to the campaign HQ if you're ordering for yourself and you can spare the cash

I'll be so glad when the next five weeks are over, and happier again if we win. My sense is that the rural areas will go no, and the urban areas will be yes. It'll be tight, but with enough work we can do it. If you have the time, the time to help is now, not in the last few days

But, it'll be my friends who I'll be most happy for we shouldn't have to be out at midnight putting up posters. They shouldn't be forced to shout out their pain. They shouldn't have to fill up those lamppost for fear of the next NO poster that might be put up outside their home

I hope that it's a yes, I hope that we can be a kinds Ireland than the one I grew up in. If that's your hope then:
1) #Register4Yes
2) Find your local group togetherforyes.ie/canvassing-inf…
3) Do what you can do to make #Repeal happen

If it's not you, then whom are you leaving it up to?