Earlier today I posted a message of solidarity with Ireland in regards to the referendum today.

I am going to be honest and tell you I fretted about posting anything on the topic, and yet really wanted to share my support. I was worried because it is a complex issues with so many intricacies, and I worried because naturally people would equate from that post what my view is around the topic-and many people probably guessed wrong.

For, truth be told, around that issue I am not sure what my whole stance is. It is so deeply personal, and putting myself in one camp or the other doesn’t seem to honestly reflect my feelings on the issue.

I would not call myself ‘pro-choice’ or ‘pro-life’…but I am pro people, and I recognise that many people get hurt through these decisions. I am for walking with people, giving people space to share their anxieties around this-I truly believe the choice to or not to terminate a pregnancy is rarely taken lightly, and it has massive consequences whether you do or don’t. Consequences that carry on for a life time.

I used to work with young people in an area that had a high number of teenage mums, but what always got me was the other statistic-that around 40% of young people decided to terminate. It shocked me because it was very clear that the locality strongly disagreed with termination, so I wondered who had these girls had to support them. Had they gone to their appointment on their own, had they been silent with shame whilst their family and friends spoke passionately about the sanctity of life?

Shame steals joy, it drains our self-worth, it imprisons us from others and from Hope of something more.

My dad pointed out that  many people who presume my views on this matter, and it would be against what a lot of people believed (including him). I know that is true, but I am willing to risk being misunderstood to at least start a dialogue around this topic.

I hope if people strongly disagree with something I have written they will ask me to share my thoughts and my experiences.

This is not a subject of right or wrong for me, it is of people, of lives that face an awful choice where neither side wins.

And ultimately of being there for one another-whether we agree or disagree-because love should always be the final word.