Join Sarah Lawrence’s Director of Health Advocacy Bridget Bohannon for a transnational conversation with Sinead Kennedy, National University of Ireland Maynooth, and Katie Mishler, University of Notre Dame, about Ireland's Repeal the 8th Movement.
In 2018, Ireland held a general referendum for voters to decide to uphold strict anti-abortion laws enshrined in the Irish constitution’s 8th Amendment or to repeal these laws. An overwhelming 64.4% of voters chose “yes” to repeal the 8th Amendment. How did Ireland, a country long known for conservative laws rooted in its identity as a Catholic nation, come to vote in favor of legalizing abortion? Not long before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, Irish public opinion and legal infrastructures moved in a very different direction. In the same period, the US was enacting strict state-level anti-abortion laws. What lessons can the US learn from the Irish campaign to repeal the 8th? What forces drove the movement and how were these forces channeled into political action?
This program is co-sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, the Health Advocacy Program, and the Women's History Working Group and was organized by Emily Bloom, Mellon Public Humanities Fellow.