Irelands Abortion Regime on the World Stage: Performative Acts and the Claim to State Sovereignty in Foreign Policy Discourse

Until 2018, Ireland had one of the most restrictive and punitive abortion regimes in the world. This was underpinned by a 1983 constitutional amendment that recognized the the right to life of the unborn with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother (Article 40.3.3). In 1992, the case of a 14-year-old girl X who was pregnant as a result of rape was the first in a series of legal cases that exposed the harmful consequences of a constitutional requirement to prioritize the life of the foetus over the health and wellbeing of the pregnant woman or girl. Ostensibly to defend the constitutional right to life of the unborn, the state had prevented X from obtaining an abortion in the UK. In 2010 the European Court of Human Rights ABC ruling found that Ireland had failed to protect human rights by not ensuring clear laws and procedures whereby any woman whose life is at risk by a continuing pregnancy has access to a life-saving termination. The death of 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar in October 2012 who was denied a life-saving abortion in an Irish public hospital became the focus of renewed questioning of Irelands stance on abortion. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act (2013), the states response to the ABC ruling, was still one of the most restrictive pieces of legislation on abortion in the world. Following the repeal of the eighth amendment, the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018, finally introduced a moderately liberal regime. Explanations as to why Ireland defended its highly punitive approach to abortion for so long in the face of a wider tide of social liberalisation, have centred on the influence of conservative Catholic doctrine and on discursive practices of nation and national identity formation. While references to state sovereignty are often present in these accounts, the terms `sovereignty, `national interest or `national identity are often used interchangeably. This chapter disentangles `nation and `sovereign to explore sovereignty as a distinct analytical category and locus of discursive practice in understanding how Irelands stance on abortion was reproduced within the states foreign policy practices. Specifically, it argues that Irelands highly restrictive regulation of abortion can be read in part as the discursive effect of performative sovereignty claim-making in the international domain and not only a reflection of a residual, significant influence of the Catholic Church in Irish society.