Abortion as healthcare: The adaptability of medicalization and legalization in post-repeal anti-abortion politics

Abstract

After a 35-year-long constitutional ban on abortion, the Eighth Amendment was repealed in May 2018 and the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 was introduced in the Republic of Ireland. Although “Repeal” and the legalization of abortion marked a significant transformation in reproductive governance, many aspects of the new abortion policy continue to complicate abortion care access and provision. In this article, I explore the mobilizations of health and rights in political discourses on abortion after legalization. In doing so, I identify how moral governance operates in post-Repeal abortion politics. I critically consider restrictive strategies in abortion politics in Ireland and compare these to a number of recent key anti-abortion tactics in the United States. As such, I situate post-Repeal and post-Roe abortion debates within parallel temporalities of abortion governance and highlight the adaptability of discourses on health and rights in shifting legal contexts.