Deirdre de Barra's letter to The Irish Times in which she told of the medical condition that prompted her to choose an abortion introduced a stark example of a real-life dilemma into the amendment debate. Here she reflects on the result - and what should happen now
"The general issue is not comprehended by this proposal [the proposed amendment]." This was the response to my letter from the Taoiseach and Attorney General's office. I was appealing to the people entrusted with representing all the women and men of Ireland and those entrusted with enshrining our democratic rights.
Not comprehended? Not understood? Not embraced? Not included? All of those.
That was the loud and clear message I received along with the heartbreaking news of my baby's condition. We are not comprehended in this country.
I have since read that the issue of chromosomal abnormalities incompatible with life was raised by an obstetrician at an oral submission to the Oireachtas subcommittee, yet it was still "not comprehended". Did the authors of this Bill and the Fianna Fáil/PD machine hope that it would not be noticed? The PDs have certainly lost one vote.
No woman should ever have to try to assimilate the news we all dread during our pregnancies with the news that she cannot have medical intervention here, and at the same time try to work out if she can afford two flights to London at short notice.
From the moment I was given the medical results and the ensuing days of extra tests and second opinions I hoped someone would phone to say it had been a mistake or that my records had been mixed up.
I have been astonished by the effect of my relating my experience; not only by the sympathetic responses, but mainly by the fact that it is being cited as a factor in having crystalised the importance of voting No for many of the people who made the effort to vote on Wednesday. This factor should not have been left to the chance and coincidence of a letter (after much hesitation) being published in this newspaper on a Monday morning. The handling of these very real human experiences should have been properly and professionally dealt with by 2002 in Ireland.
Instead the Government and the All-Party Committee must have hoped that cases like mine would never surface because it would interfere with the real game, that of political football with women's reproductive organs.
After my letter was published I was full of anguish about recrimination, but steadily gained strength by the support it elicited until a few days ago when clarity about the intolerable debate descended upon me.
The Fianna Fáil/Catholic Church Yes campaign was hooked to the Unborn Issue. They have spent several million euro pushing their "deeply held" views. But it appears they only enshrine protection for life IN the womb.
Last week it was reported that there are at least 100 autistic children having to take court action to secure their right to an education. Some of the millions in campaign funding could have been spent on them, but they are The Born.
The Taoiseach spoke of democracy yesterday. There is no real democracy when the Government chooses to ignore the rights of minorities, or "not comprehend" them.
The argument in my letter is that the born are completely dismissed in these black-and-white debates. I would not have been able to properly look after the born in my family in the mental state I was in and that which I faced.
Reading the letter from Ms Cox in Bray, I was appalled by how neglected she and her born handicapped child were. She described the reality of the lack of support in this country for these cases from cradle to grave. We also heard from a mother who knew her baby would not survive long after birth and chose to continue until he slipped away, it is wonderful that she had that choice. In my opinion the same choice and support should be afforded to the woman who absolutely knows, through her own personal circumstances, that she cannot go to full term because it will be a matter of hours before her baby dies. On reports of cases of misdiagnosis I would say that nobody, but nobody, would take this action without several tests and opinions.
In the other cases, where women have had to make choices for other reasons, surely it is logical to deduce that if there are 7,000 recorded Irish women travelling to have abortions every year, there will be still the same incidence each year no matter where it is carried out?
I believe, there is a possibility that women would reconsider taking this step if they had the option of treatment here, because having that option is implicit in having a benign view of the female plight.
In my opinion, the setting up of a Crisis Pregnancy Agency was a smokescreen, I have no doubt that like any State-funded organisation it will become so constrained by administration and understaffing women will require to book a month in advance to be seen.
A managed approach to education and prevention of crisis pregnancies is what we would all love to see, so that there might be a huge reduction in numbers who are in crisis.
There is no greater obstacle to tolerance and reconciliation than fear of change and fear of otherness. Hospitals outside this jurisdiction have been depicted as insensitive. A letter from a then junior doctor described how he watched a foetus wriggle in a bucket, I wondered why he was not ashamed to admit that he stood by and said nothing then.
In my case I, and our son, could not have received a kinder, more dignified treatment. My wishes to deliver the baby, see him, name him and most importantly bury him with respect, were not only complied with but were welcomed as a matter of course.
Finally, there will be enough analysis about east/west and urban/rural divide, without my adding to it here, none of which can be easily assimilated because of the complexity of the wording.
If I had not informed myself before voting I might as well have been reading Mandarin when I got to the polling booth. I do not think it was a sophisticated and liberal electorate that has swung this marginal victory. It seems very much to me to be a case of people having second thoughts when it comes to being faced by a real-life example.
The outcome, as the numbers tentatively inched forward, was not a loud cry to queue up for abortion as the scaremongering would have had us believe, but a tiny cry for compassion. It is an appeal to redress the intolerant culture against women's medical health. It is a refusal to accept the continued misogyny perpetrated by the Catholic Church, and the arrogant dogma of a political party.
I want to see the next elected government deliver on this issue, and to ensure that the relevant voices of women are included in bringing about the right legislation for this country.
It has been expedient for the Government to say they cannot legislate for "hard" cases. Well, these are human-life issues that have been foregrounded in the last few weeks. They might not be as exhilarating a topic as sports stadiums, but they will not go away until they are addressed.
I believe the professionals entrusted with the care of women's health should be legally supported to help a woman in the wide-ranging dilemmas that confront her.