This evening I was very pleased to give the first in this year’s series on seminars on Abortion in Context: Law, Ethics, and Practice, held at University College, Oxford. In today’s seminar (abstract here) I very briefly outlined abortion law in Ireland (drawing largely on this recent article in the Michigan J. of Gender and the Law) and then considered the ways in which the 8th amendment holds a powerful rhetorical hold on politics, professional practice, and popular sentiment in Ireland. This rhetorical power is, I claimed, significant in any consideration of the obstacles to be overcome in attempting to build momentum behind (a) holding and (b) winning a referendum on repeal of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. The slides from this evening’s talk are here, and there will be a further seminar on abortion in Univ every week for the rest of this term. Details of the full term card are available here.
Category: abortion
Repeal the 8th Amendment: Debate at TCD
Last night I made my way back to Dublin for the evening, to participate in a debate organised jointly by the TCD Law Society and TCD Student’s Union on the legal implications of repeal of the 8th amendment (i.e. the provision of the Irish Constitution by which unborn life and the lives of pregnant women are deemed equal). The debate was a little unusual inasmuch as (a) it didn’t have a proposition per se, but was rather framed as a topic, and (b) it was undertaken in good spirit and rigour, and nobody seemed to lose his or her temper.
In as much as there was a proposition side (which we might vaguely describe as a side in favour of repeal of the 8th amendment and confident that the legal consequences would not lead to some form of disaster) it comprised of myself and Máiréad Enright (University of Kent). Máiréad and I have written together on the issue of Irish abortion law before, and we were also both in the group that drafted and published the Access to Abortion Bill last year. The opposition side (opposed to repeal of the 8th Amendment and to the legalisation of abortion in Ireland) comprised William Binchy and Gerry Whyte, both of Trinity Law School (Binchy is now emeritus there), and William Binchy is also legal advisor to the Pro Life Campaign. I don’t know if there was an exact head count taken, but I would imagine there was over 200 people in attendance and the debate went on for close to two hours.
It was also made available on Periscope, so you can look and listen to it here. The University Times and Trinity News carry reports of the debate here and here.
The Labour Party #repealthe8th Proposals: An Analysis
This is cross-posted from Human Rights in Ireland
Today the Labour Party became the second party to outline its plans for repeal of the 8th amendment and the possible legislation that would follow constitutional change (the first was the Green Party, whose proposals I analysed here). The proposals seem to have temporarily disappeared from the Labour page, but the Heads are uploaded here.
I must start this post by saying that, together with nine others (Mairead Enright, Vicky Convway, Mary Donnelly, Ruth Fletcher, Natalie McDonnell, Claire Murray, Sheelagh McGuinness, and Sorcha uí Chonnachtaigh) I was involved as an independent expert in the Labour Women Commission on Repeal of the 8th Amendment. This Commission comprised a political group, a medical group, and a legal group. Our job, as the legal group, was to propose a piece of law that might act as a “model” for post-amendment legislating, listening to the views of the medical experts and feeding into the political decision-making processes of the political group. Continue reading “The Labour Party #repealthe8th Proposals: An Analysis”
Reforming Abortion Law in Ireland: A Model
In the second half of 2014 Labour Women established a Commission on Repeal of the 8th Amendment, i.e. the provision of the Irish Constitution that protects “the right to life of the unborn” and has been used to sharply restrict the availability of abortion in Ireland. I was one of the legal experts in the Commission and, in that role, I worked with nine other feminist lawyers: Mairead Enright, Vicky Conway, Mary Donnelly, Ruth Fletcher, Natalie McDonnell, Sheelagh McGuinness, Claire Murray, Sinead Ring and Sorcha Ui Chonnachtaigh. We produced a draft structure and content for legislation that aimed to take into account the constraints within which we were working, political realities, and standards outlined in international human rights law. Continue reading “Reforming Abortion Law in Ireland: A Model”
Professor Fiona de Londras 