Table Of ContentABORTION AND NATION
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Taylor & Francis
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Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfra n ci s.com
Abortion and Nation
The Politics of Reproduction in
Contemporary Ireland
LISA SMYTH
Queens University Belfast
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Lisa Smyth 2005
Lisa Smyth has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identified as the author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Smyth, Lisa
Abortion and nation : the politics of reproduction in
contemporary Ireland
1. Abortion - Political aspects - Ireland 2. Abortion -
Government policy - Ireland 3. Abortion - Law and
legislation - Ireland 4. Rape victims - Legal status, laws,
etc. - Ireland 5. Women’s rights - Ireland 6. National
characteristics, Irish
I. Title
363.4'6'09417
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smyth, Lisa, 1969-
Abortion and nation : the politics of reproduction in contemporary Ireland / by Lisa Smyth,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Abortion—Political aspects—Ireland. 2. Abortion—Law and legislation-Ireland.
3. Rape victims—Legal status, laws, etc.—Ireland. 4. Women’s rights—Ireland. 5.
National characteristics, Irish. I. Title.
HQ767.5.I73S69 2005
363.46'09417—dc22
2004027235
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-3592-5 (hbk)
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
List ofA bbreviations vii
Glossary ofI rish Terms viii
1 Abortion Politics, the Nation-State and Globalization 1
2 Abortion and Reproductive Freedom 22
3 The Politics of Authenticity: Nationality, Gender and Irishness 33
4 National Entrepreneurs: A Moral Panic Emerges 49
5 Abortion, Official Nationhood and Gendered Citizenship 73
6 The X Case and the Familial 'Pro-Life' Nation 91
7 The X Case and the Republican Democratic Nation-State 104
8 Towards a Liberal Democratic Political Culture? 120
Conclusion: Women in the Nation-State 140
Bibliography 147
Index 184
Acknowledgements
I owe a debt of gratitude to the many people who have contributed in one way or
another to this project. In particular, I would like to thank Deborah L. Steinberg,
whose unwavering enthusiasm, patience and advice have been invaluable over the
years. Thanks also to Richard Johnson, Caroline Wright and Louise Ryan for their
critical connnents on earlier drafts of the manuscript, and to Nickie Charles and Jo
Campling for their help with publication. I would also like to thank colleagues in
the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen's University, Belfast, and in
Sociology and Anthropology at Swansea, for their support. I am also grateful to the
postgraduate students in Sociology and Women's Studies at Warwick between
1995 and 2000, where most of the work on this book was carried out, especially to
Yvonne McKenna, Marsha Henry and Joan Haran.
I would especially like to thank all the campaigners both for and against
abortion access in Ireland who agreed to talk to me as part of the research for this
book.
I am grateful to the University of Warwick Graduate Award Scheme for
financial support in conducting the research. I would also like to thank Trinity
College Dublin Library; the British Library; and the British Library of Political and
Economic Science for providing access to research material. Sections of Chapter
Two are reprinted from Women's Studies International Forum, Vol 25, Issue 3,
'Feminism and Abortion Politics' pp.335-345 (2002) with permission from
Elsevier.
Finally, a special thanks to Cillian McBride for all the years of talking,
listening and inspiration, and to Ruadhan, whose arrival has taught me at first hand
the value of reproductive freedom.
List of Abbreviations
AAC Anti-Amendment Campaign
ANV Alliance for a No Vote
BPAS British Pregnancy Advisory Service
CPA Crisis Pregnancy Agency
GAA Gaelic Athletic Association
IFPA Irish Family Planning Association
IRA Irish Republican Army
NF In Vitro Fertilization
PLAC Pro-Life Amendment Campaign
REAC Repeal the Eighth Amendment Campaign
SPUC Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
TD Teachtai Dala (Elected member of the First House of the
Legislature)
UN United Nations
WIN Women's Information Network
Glossary of Irish Terms
Bunreacht na hEireann Constitution of Ireland
Oireachtas Legislature (First House; Second House;
President)
Dail Legislative Assembly (First House)
Seanad Senate (Second House)
Taoiseach Prime Minister
Gardai Police
Gaeltacht Officially designated Irish-speaking region
Chapter 1
Abortion Politics,
the Nation-State and Globalization
Introduction
On 12th February 1992, a headline appeared on the front page of the liberal left-
wing national newspaper The Irish Times, announcing 'State attempts to stop girl's
abortion'. A fourteen-year-old pregnant rape victim, referred to as 'X', had been
issued with a temporary High Court injunction, preventing her from obtaining an
abortion, and from leaving the State for a period of nine months. The right to life of
X's foetus, constitutionally recognized since 1983, was judged to outweigh her own
rights to bodily integrity and freedom of movement. The news became the focus of
extraordinary public controversy, as mass demonstrations demanding the removal
of the injunction became daily events. The State's action, effectively compelling a
fourteen-year-old to carry a pregnancy conceived through rape, was greeted with
popular outrage. Characterizations of X and her family as respectable, middle-class,
and law-abiding were particularly important in generating this public reaction. The
significance of what were perceived as the exceptional circumstances of this case
has had lasting effect on the abortion debate in Ireland, as journalist Aine
McCarthy (2000) connnents, and indicated a rupture of previous political
affiliations. As the editorial of the same newspaper declared in response to the case,
Ireland appeared to have 'descended into cruelty' in a way similar to explicitly
undemocratic and tyrannical states.1
Abortion Politics, Globalization and Nationhood
This book is interested in the effects this case had on the framing of Irish abortion
politics, through which a coercive anti-abortion regime had operated legitimately,
and with increasing momentum, during the previous decade. More particularly,
what follows is concerned with the ways in which anti-abortion politics had
operated historically through a politics of national identity, which relied on, and
reproduced, constructions of Irishness in traditionally familial, patriarchal, and
conservatively Catholic terms. The X case significantly unsettled these gendered
1/rish Times 18th February 1992, 'Descent Into Cruelty'.
