Ireland’s Struggle for Abortion Rights Should Be an Inspiration for the US
Irish pro-choice activists had to overcome a rigid constitutional ban on abortion that was in place for more than 30 years. They succeeded by putting mass mobilization and a confident assertion of the right to choose at the heart of their campaign.
Protesters during a Strike 4 Repeal campaign march held in Dublin city center, to seek a referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution, on March 7, 2018, in Dublin, Ireland. (Widak / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In May 2018, the Irish electorate voted by a two-to-one majority to remove or “repeal” the prohibition on abortion, known as the Eighth Amendment, from the country’s constitution. While opinion polls had suggested that pro-choice campaigners would win, most predicted a nerve-rackingly close result; certainly no one anticipated the sheer scale of the victory and the support for abortion access found across every section of society, from young to old, urban to rural.
In the aftermath of the recent US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the introduction of abortion bans in at least ten US states, the history of the Irish struggle for abortion rights can offer some insights into the lived reality of blanket bans on abortion and, perhaps more usefully, illuminate how the struggle for abortion rights can be won in a country where abortion has been bitterly contested.
Origins of the Eighth Amendment
Following a referendum in 1983, Ireland became the first country in the world to give constitutional protection to the fetus, thereby copper-fastening the Irish state’s long-standing ban on abortion. The Eighth Amendment equated the life of a pregnant woman with that of a fetus, making abortion illegal in all circumstances except where there was a “real and substantial risk” to the mother’s life (the nature of this “real and substantial risk” was never actually defined or codified in law).
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