Borders of abortion and identity: moral shadowboxing on the island of Ireland, 1920-2018

The Republic of Ireland’s 2018 referendum legalizing abortion marked a historic departure for reproductive rights not only within its own borders, but also in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. For much of the twentieth century political players on both sides of the border framed the Republic as the laggard on such issues, but Northern Ireland also had a restrictive abortion regime. In fact, reproduction and women’s bodies have been inscribed with similar political and moral meanings in both states since their foundations. The politics of reproduction shaped identity and an awareness of the other state’s moral story fed into a narrative of superiority infused with notions of Irishness, Britishness, belonging, respectability, political legitimacy, and the tensions between these issues. Through a historical analysis of parliamentary debates, legislative changes, sociological surveys, legal cases, medical journals, and newspaper reportage about abortion, this chapter explores physical, moral, political, and religious borders and assesses how, for almost a century, a process of othering was conducted between the two states on the island of Ireland through the use of a particular cultural and moral narrative, which resulted in the distortion and negation of the reproductive experiences of thousands of women.