Pro-choice Student Unions have been pushing for basic healthcare provisions for women on campuses across Ireland and this will be another milestone.
According to the College Tribune, last night a motion was passed by the UCDSU Council that would allow the UCDSU Welfare Officer to provide free pregnancy tests to UCD students.
The SU will be handing out the pregnancy tests by next week. Students can get a pregnancy test by asking Eoghan Mac Domhaill, the Welfare Officer of UCDSU. Eoghan can also provide students with information on how to chat with your GP if the test is positive and students can ask about their pregnancy options with Eoghan.The motion was brought before council so that any student who needed a pregnancy test could now get one for free from the SU.
Mac Domhaill spoke to the Tribune about the decision to approve the motion:
I think it’s a good idea because we’re progressing the work that the Union is already doing, providing a service that is going to be really beneficial for students. We don’t expect students to take on the cost of contraception so why should be expecting students to take on the cost of seeing whether or not they’re pregnant?
As part of the meeting, a motion was proposed to take the removed abortion information in the Winging It manuals and provide the information as a pamphlet. The pamphlet would be two pages of information with the cost of publication coming from the SU publications or UCD for Choice budgets.
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The Acting President Barry Murphy, who spoke at the council, revealed he believed the information was crucial for students and that there's a possibility of additional information being added to the Winging It manual in future.
The move to provide women on campus with pregnancy tests comes after a turbulent number of weeks for UCDSU. A few short weeks ago UCDSU President Katie Ascough was impeached by UCD students after removing abortion information from the Winging It handbook.
