Studying abroad in Dublin has given me more than just academic enrichment; it has opened my eyes to the variations in healthcare systems across different countries, especially when it comes to women’s health. As someone from Philadelphia and a student at Pitt, I came to Ireland expecting the basics of universal healthcare. However, I didn’t fully understand how that translated to real-life experiences.

Ireland has a public healthcare system called the HSE (Health Service Executive), which provides subsidized or free care to residents. As a student, I’ve had access to student health services, and the costs are often much lower than what I’d expect back home in Pittsburgh, especially for things like GP visits and prescriptions. Though I luckily have not had direct experience, I know a few people who have had to, and they came back surprised at the process. Though free/low-cost, the wait times were supposedly very long. On the other hand, healthcare in Pittsburgh, and the U.S. generally, is heavily tied to private insurance. While the quality of care can be excellent, out-of-pocket costs, copays, and insurance gaps often create barriers for patients, in addition to the already high wait times.

In class, we were learning about the unspoken parts of Ireland’s strictly Catholic history. Between the 1920s and 1990s, thousands of women, mainly unmarried and pregnant, were placed in institutions known as Mother and Baby Homes, often run by religious orders. Their “care” was often cruel and torturous. In these homes, women were separated from their babies, many of whom died due to neglect or malnutrition, and many others were forcibly adopted, often without the mother’s consent. Alongside them were the Magdalene Laundries, where so-called poor, orphaned, or perceived as promiscuous women were incarcerated and forced to work under harsh, unpaid labor conditions. These women had little to no medical care, no autonomy, and no escape. After class, I was inspired to learn more about reproductive rights for women here and how that has changed through the years.

I was glad to learn that Ireland has grown significantly in this regard. The 2018 repeal of the Eighth Amendment was a turning point, giving women the legal right to access abortion care. Abortion is now legal in Ireland, as well, up to 12 weeks, but access still varies, especially in rural areas. But this came only after decades of activism, testimony from survivors, and national reckonings with institutional abuse. There have also been official state apologies and compensation schemes for survivors of these institutions. There’s also a lingering social stigma in some circles preventing women from accessing their rights. This is something that though established, continues to show the need for activism in not only Ireland, but in the United States as well.