Repealing Ireland's Eighth Amendment: abortion rights and democracy today

Abstract

In 2018, the Irish public voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which since 1983 banned abortion in the country. While this was a watershed moment in Irish history, it was not unconnected to wider discussions now taking place around the world concerning gender, reproductive rights, the future of religion, Church-State relationships, democracy and social movements. With this Forum, we want to prompt some anthropological interpretations of Ireland's repeal of the Eighth Amendment as a matter concerning not only reproductive rights, but also questions of life and death, faith and shame, women and men, state power and individual liberty, and more. We also ask what this event might mean (if anything) for other societies dealing with similar issues?

Putting Abortion in the Frame: The Success of the Campaign to Repeal the 8th Amendment in Ireland

“…A long history of anti-abortion sentiment and legislation in Ireland had created divisions that ran deep within Irish society. The issue of abortion was (and indeed, remains) a complicated and deeply personal matter for many Irish people, but the referendum came at a time subsequent to the Irish economic crisis (Heffernan et al 2017), austerity, the water protests (Power 2018), and the marriage equality referendum (Tiernan 2020), after which a much stronger protest culture had emerged (Dr ą żkiewicz et al 2020). This was coupled with a profound shift in terms of attitudes towards the Catholic church (Hogan 2019) and more broadly, questions of social justice and rights (Mullally 2018).…”

‘Our Darkest Hour’: Women and Structural Violence under Ireland’s 8th Amendment

“…Ireland's infliction of state-sponsored violence on women's reproductive autonomy stemmed from the 8th Amendment's enshrinement of religious and 'moral' ideals as the foundation of political and medical regulations. Other nations have faced similar challenges in the realm of reproductive rights, but Ireland's particular history of subjugation of women and their reproductive choices is unique in that it has been unwaveringly discriminatory (Bloomer, 2014;Cook and Dickens, 2009;Drążkiewicz et al, 2020;Kim, 2019). Nandagiri et al (2020: 83) have examined 'how institutionalized and everyday forms of violence restrict and affect abortion access and quality of care'.…”

“…When the Irish state enforced the 8th Amendment, requiring women with nonviable pregnancies to carry to term those pregnancies or travel abroad away from their family and support systems as well as suffer health risks and consequences during miscarriage, it created a marriage between institutional and everyday violence. Compelling providers to deliberately withhold information about reproductive options is further evidence that the state inflicted violent harm on women's reproductive bodies (Berer, 2013;Bloomer, 2014;Broussard, 2020;Drążkiewicz et al, 2020;Enright and Ring, 2020;McReynolds-Pérez, 2017). Ensuring that only those with the financial means were able to access abortion care both in the comfort and privacy of their own homes through abortion pills or in a clinic setting outside of Ireland was a discriminatory practice that oppressed marginalised women experiencing physically, emotionally, and economically challenging pregnancies (A.…”

Technologies of protest in Irish abortion activism

“…Anthropological attention to the recent history of abortion activism in Ireland has focused on multiple areas, including democratic and constitutional politics, use of art in activism, shifting religiosity, and reframing cultural values through narrative (Drążkiewicz et al. 2020; NicGhabhann 2018; O'Shaughnessy 2021). Although scholars have explored questions of the abortion pill in Ireland, few have documented the crucial history of Irish abortion activism's role in shaping desire, awareness, and acceptance of medication abortion through protest actions (Calkin 2021; Sheldon 2016, 2018).…”