Ep. 21 - Panel 5A - Part 3 - Voices of the Referendum - Rebecca Boast (Univ of Liverpool)

NPPSH Conference

The voices of the female Irish citizen have long gone unheard and ignored. The call for comprehensive bodily autonomy for the Irish woman has, for example, been marginalised and buried beneath the ‘traditional’ roles of motherhood and childbearing. Now with the upcoming referendum on repealing the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution and prevalence of the #Repealthe8th campaign, we as a society have seen Irish women (and men) come together to canvas support for the liberalisation of Irish abortion law. The referendum results will be a strong indicator of the societal standpoint on the liberalisation of abortion law in Ireland. However, by analysing the coverage of the upcoming referendum and the Oireachtas debates it has become clear that are bilateral exchanges of stigma, in the form of reactive discourse, between ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ proponents. Encompassing the themes of gender and tradition vs modernity, the paper will therefore explore the long standing ‘traditional’ views of female bodily autonomy; and consider if they have remained firm or if a new-found tolerance has taken hold as Irish society faces of a new chapter of bodily autonomy for female citizens. Rebecca Boast is currently an MRes student at the University of Liverpool, studying with the Institute of Irish Studies. Her research is focused on stigma and shame within the abortion debate in Ireland; with a particular focus on the recent referendum. This research will be continued at PhD level, commencing in October 2018 and will introduce a comparative analysis with Malta.