Dublin doctor speaks about her trauma of travelling for an abortion

An Irish GP has told the story of her dreadful experience travelling to the UK to procure an abortion.

As the eighth amendment currently bans women from having an abortion, there have been many Irishwomen who have been forced to travel for a termination - with as many as 12 women a day estimated to leave Ireland to obtain the medical procedure. Dr. Lara Kelly has shared her harrowing story with The Guardian, speaking of having to return to Ireland from England with remains of her baby in a box. The doctor was forced to travel to Liverpool after confirmation her baby would die immediately after birth when doctors discovered her baby had not grown and developed properly. With her husband Mark, Dr.Kelly sought a consultation and was forced to travel to Liverpool to terminate the pregnancy, a mere two weeks before the couple's wedding anniversary. Planning to cremate the remains back in Ireland, she described the horrendous experience of carrying her baby's foetal remains in a box.

"I remember carrying the remains past the entire [Tottenham] Spurs squad. "There was me with my little plastic bag and the baby’s remains in a cardboard box. It was just so bizarre passing by the players with the remains of our baby under my arm.”

After the medical procedure, the couple decided to bring the box on the flight back to Dublin for fear of it getting lost or damaged with other luggage. At the airport, declaring the foetal remains was another difficult experience as the security men in charge of one of the airport's queue only showed ignorance towards the couple.

"When we got to the top we said to the security guy that we had to declare foetal remains. The guy said, ‘What?’ "He didn’t know what foetal remains meant so Mark said, ‘It’s a baby in the box’, and the man said out loud, ‘A baby in the box?’ "Half the queue heard that, probably some of those who were getting on our flight to Dublin heard that."

Lara has said that if the eighth amendment were repealed, she would've had a safer, less traumatic experience as opposed to the ignorance and embarrassment she suffered.

"I could have gone to my local hospital that morning, I could have been with my mum and dad recovering that night after it, in my own bed under supervision of my own doctor. "I was made to get on a plane to go to a different country because I was not allowed to be here. "Give us our referendum. None of the people of my generation got to speak in 1983. I was 18 months old the last time this was voted on."

This story is brought to you in partnership with The Repeal Project.

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