In Belfast in 1984, Catherine 1 is 27 years old, and married to a man in jail for membership of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Still active in republicanism, albeit within the remit of her role as prisonerâs wife and mother to three young children, she has a brief affair with a man she is helping to hide from British authorities. She falls pregnant but manages to get money to travel to England to an abortion clinic. She worries about being arrested en route as a result of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. She isnât stopped and makes it to England to have the termination . On her return, she is questioned when re-entering Northern Ireland. Interrogated by police , she admits that she travelled for an abortion. ââYouâre a murderer, a Fenian whore and a murderer!ââ, they tell her, ââyouâre all the same â you IRA bitchesââ. A âgood cop/bad copâ routine ensues, in which attempts are made to encourage her to turn informant, further insults are thrown, and threats made that her children will be removed from her. She is terrified at the thought of this.
In Belfast in late 2013, Sarah Ewart , a recently married woman from East Belfast, pregnant but carrying a foetus suffering from anencephaly , 2 is denied an abortion. Having been told that she is ineligible under the strict legal framework provided for by Northern Irish law, she contacts a major BBC radio and television presenter in the region and is filmed as she travels to England for a termination . Her case receives much media attention in the province, reigniting debate around abortion, with public attitudes generally sympathetic to her situation and, indeed, incredulous that it could occur in contemporary Northern Ireland.
These are two very different stories, from very different periods within Northern Irelandâs contemporary historyâone taking place when violence within the province was still prevalent and a peace settlement, with or without a political institutional element, appeared impossible; one taking place over a decade after the Good Friday Agreement, 3 during a period of minimal violence and in the second full term of the Northern Irish Assembly. Yet both have the same endingâthe impossibility of a termination within Northern Irish territory or law. Northern Ireland is a near anomaly in Western Europe in terms of its abortion laws. Until the referendum to repeal the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution passed overwhelmingly in May 2018, this conservative position extended across the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland. Yet Northern Ireland remains part of the UK , the rest of which has had liberal abortion laws since 1967. This book asks why this is the case. Why does Northern Ireland remain distinct from the rest of the UK as far as the termination of pregnancy is concerned? Why has the 1967 Abortion Act , which allows for terminations in England, Scotland and Wales , never been extended to Northern Ireland? Why, despite Northern Ireland now being a fundamental part of the multi-level governance structures of the UK, does it remain distinctly different on this issue?
Northern Irish society has changed dramatically from the early 1980s, the period in which this book begins. The region has moved from one of the bloodiest conflicts seen in post-World War Europe, to twenty years of post-peace agreement stability. Although still markedly poorer than the rest of the UK (as might be expected given the decades long conflict), Northern Ireland boasts major international tourist attractions (Giantâs Causeway, the Belfast Titanic centre), world-class universities and, in 2013, played host to the meeting of G8 countries in Lough Erne. All of the above are often cited by those who praise Northern Irelandâs transition to âpeaceâ as providing a global benchmark for other countries emerging from conflict (Wilson 2010). As a society, its proponents argue, Northern Irelandâs post-conflict stability and achievements are unsurpassed: so why, of all issues, does abortion remain so contentious and laws regarding it so strict?
Going hand in hand with this developing peace , Northern Irelandâs politics and governance have changed dramatically in the period which this book considers. The devolution of political powers to Northern Ireland following the peace agreement in 1998 embraced the province within a complex multi-level governance set-up in the UK . A devolved government has been enacted, at once giving Northern Ireland greater local powers but also enmeshing it further into a UK-wide system. Northern Ireland, although with key important differences, 4 now elects regional representatives on the same time frame and with many of the same powers as Welsh and Scottish residents. Similarly, it continues to be represented at the national parliament at Westminster . 5 Why, even though it is a key component of the UK both territorially and in terms of its governance structures, is Northern Ireland allowed to be different in this regard? And why has central government at Westminster, heavily involved in the peace process and post-conflict management, had markedly little interest in this issue?
Why Institutions?
This book approaches the issue of abortion and Northern Ireland from an institutional perspective. Much literature on gender and politics has focussed on women in politics (Kenny 2013, 34; Mackay 2004, 114). It has considered, for example whether women can be said to act for women when in office (Childs 2001; Childs and Krook 2006; Childs and Withey 2006; Celis et al. 2008; Dovi 2002; Mansbridge 1999; Phillips 1995), how womenâs movements interact with the state (Banaszak et al. 2003; Stetson and Mazur 1995) and how institutions can encourage greater female representation (Krook 2009; Murray 2010). Yet there has been little work on âother aspects of political architecture, such as how unitary functions are shared or divided between different levels of government, in unitary, devolving or federal systemsâ (Sawer and Vickers 2010, 3). There has been less interest in how complex multi-level set-ups (such as the devolved UK ) affect gendered policy-making.
Contemporary governance in the UK operates along a unique system of devolved governance. This system is often taken to be gender -neutral, or to have no gender-specific outcomes. Indeed, broader considerations of federalism or multi-level governance are very rarely gendered (Sawer and Vickers 2010, 3), making gendered thinking around devolved or multi-level institutions âa new and under-researched fieldâ (Mackay 2010, 155). The nature of formal political structures in Northern Irelandâa regional Assembly and a national government, set within the framework of European institutions and international treaty obligationsâcreates a complex multi-level governance set-up as seen in Cardiff and Edinburgh . Furthermore, the specific nature of governance in Northern Irelandâthe power -sharing consociational arrangementsâare a very different type of government than that seen elsewhere in the UK. Northern Ireland thus presents a clear example of multi-level governance through which its gendered implications can be considered.
Studying the issue of abortion through the lens of multi-level governance is particularly key given that institutional accounts of abortion rarely form part of academic work on the subject. Because of the broader concerns which are often drawn into the debate on abortion (as outlined belowâlargely opinions on female sexuality, the family and motherhood), the majority of work on abortion in the social sciences tends to address it as a social or legal, rather than a political, issue. Abortion has been considered from an understanding of new technologies and the way in which they have changed the social construction of termination of pregnancy (Roberts 2012), or via the role of international organisations and globalised human rights discourse (Bloomer and Fegan 2014; Cook and Dic...