Smyth, Lisa (2000) Abortion politics and national identity : the X-case, Irishness and the nation-state. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the shifts in political culture effected by the 'X case'
(1992), when the State issued an injunction to prevent a fourteen year old
pregnant and suicidal rape victim from travelling abroad for an abortion. In so
doing, this thesis focuses on the connection between discourses of Irish
nationhood, gender and sexuality in the fields of reproductive politics and
women's citizenship.
Abortion law and politics has had constitutional status in Ireland since 1983,
when the right to life of 'the unborn' was officially recognised as ostensibly
equal to that of women. This has situated debate on abortion access in an
explicitly national framework, since political sovereignty is invested in 'the
people'.
Shifting articulations of nationhood and abortion are examined in three specific
sites of political culture: the national press; political activist discourses; and
official legislative debates. The terms of debate in the press and the Oireachtas
(legislature) in particular are compared over time, from the 1983 campaign to
recognize a foetal right to life, to 1992, when the legitimacy and meaning of
constitutional abortion law was thrown into crisis by the X case.
Two specific reversals in the terms of post-X case abortion politics are
examined. Firstly the anti-abortion construction of the nation in familial terms
produced popular pressure in 1992 to allow for a right to abortion in the
interests of familial integrity. Secondly, the primary antagonism opposing Irish
'pro-life' traditionalism to English 'pro-abortion' modernism was reversed both
by the anti-abortion lobby's key role in 'interning' X within the State, and by the
popular perception that feminist advocacy of abortion access would reassert the
integrity of the violated family. Significant continuities in the construction of
abortion law and politics in national terms are also analyzed.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman K Law [LC] > KD England and Wales > KDK Ireland
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Abortion -- Law and legislation -- Ireland, Abortion -- Government policy -- Ireland, Ireland -- Politics and government -- 20th century
Official Date:	September 2000
Dates:	Date Event September 2000 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Steinberg, Deborah Lynn
Sponsors:	University of Warwick
Extent:	xii, 342 leaves
Language:	eng

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