How tweeting a story of a secret abortion shocked Ireland

The World
Janet Ni Shuilleabhain was 18 when she traveled to England for an abortion

In Ireland, abortion rights are deeply contentious. The population is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. And when Janet Ni Shuilleabhain chose to tweet about her experience having an abortion, it went viral. At the time, she was the guest curator of the @Ireland Twitter account, which has 20,000 followers.

Set up in March 2012 by the Irish Central website, @Ireland is a "rotation curation" account. A new guest tweeter takes the reins each week. It is not linked to the government of Ireland.

While guest curator, Shuilleabhain retweeted a post from the Irish Family Planning Association, a pro-choice organization. That generated a lot of criticism, as people argued that the @Ireland account should not be used by someone with a pro-choice agenda.

Shuilleabhain is part of the campaign for abortion rights in Ireland. She then decided to tweet the following story of how she traveled to England when she was 18, for a secret abortion.

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