The comments we get from readers on the articles we post on Her.ie can be cutting.

We have been called everything from shoddy journalists to dumb titty bitches. And we know it’s part and parcel of life on the Internet.  We are a commercial enterprise and as such we present a variety of content from entertainment to opinion pieces to viral videos. But we can’t keep our entire audience happy all of the time. And Jesus they absolutely let us know when we make them unhappy. So 5 months ago when we announced, very boldly and very blatantly, that we support the repeal of the 8^th amendment we expected a lot of backlash. There were many reasons for our choosing to publically support and advocate for the introduction of safe and legal abortion. Firstly, we’re Ireland’s leading website for women and as such we have a responsibility to represent the needs of women. As a media, we are responsible for highlighting discrepancies in Irish law, especially those directly related to women. Secondly, and unsurprisingly, our editorial team consists of seven women. We come from all over Ireland, we have different backgrounds, different families, different education levels, different interests, different passions, different ambitions for the future and different goals. But one thing that united us was this issue. And while we all have variant levels of experience with abortion, whether we have had friends who have accessed abortions, whether we’ve ever sought or contemplated an abortion, or whether we ever would chose to procure an abortion, we all unanimously agreed that the decision should be realised by the woman in question. We as seven individual women can be considered a very small microcosm of Ireland. And as this microcosm we make editorial decisions daily. If we find something interesting we’ll cover it. If we think it’s relevant it gets written. So when we spoke about abortion, and shared our thoughts, and our determination to see the 8^th amendment repealed, we felt we were representing the views of our audience. So we announced it. Very boldly and very blatantly. Thankfully we were right. The backlash we expected never came. Of course, there were a pocketful of people who said they would unfollow us and a handful of readers who said we were silly for taking a a stance. But the hatred, the arguments and the debate were ripples compared to an expected tide. Since our public announcement we have covered a plethora of stories about abortion. We’ve shared personal accounts. We’ve written about statistics, we’ve covered campaigns. We constantly lend our platform to the voices actively defending women’s reproductive rights. And, it gives me great relief to say, our audience have stood by us throughout. So we know the appetite for change is there. We know the facts. We know that including last minute budget flights, an abortion procedure will cost anything from €1,100 to €2,500. We know that in 2014 3,735 women travelled from Ireland to procure an abortion. They’re the most recent statistics available. It is estimated that a more accurate figure sits somewhere around 5,000. That means, tonight, somewhere between 10 to 14 women are dealing with the after effects of a procedure they had to endure in a foreign place. Surrounded by strangers. And tonight, or maybe tomorrow, they will fly home to a country with a population that supports their choice but to a government that does not. They will return to a country that does not offer them solace, counselling or financial support. And it will happen again tomorrow. And again the day after. It’s no wonder that when we conducted our Slice of Ireland research last year, 52% of our audience told us they personally knew someone who had travelled for an abortion. And while we, at the Her.ie desk are a microcosm, they were not. They were the reality. But we’re only preaching to the choir here if we continue to talk about why abortion should be accessible. We’re going around in circles if we’re just standing here patting ourselves on the back for supporting something that we now comfortably know is of interest to our audience. Tonight’s not about the statistics or the stories. Tonight is about learning about turning passion into action. It’s about discussing how we can transform the determination that we share to repeal the 8^th amendment into actual tangible change. This room contains representatives from campaign groups all over the country. When opening this event, we also refrained from purposely inviting people, we kept the promotion up on site and requested that people email for tickets. Everyone is here because they want to be. What we need to do is harness the commitment in this room to create a movement. Tonight is about influencing change. It’s about learning how to support campaigns. The speakers here tonight will talk about the steps they have taken in the pursuit of fair, legal and safe abortion. So how can you help? In order to get the on the political agenda, our voices need to be unified. Fine Gael have consistently failed to commit to a referendum on the 8^th amendment. Fianna Fáil stated in September that they also would not hold a referendum on the 8^th amendment. We need to create noise. So as you’re sitting there tonight, don’t just listen, absorb the information. Don’t just share our content, become amplifiers. And don’t just talk about Repealing the 8^th Amendment, become a megaphone. If you want to see more content or videos from our Her Talks event you can check out the #HerTalks hashtag on social media.