The Irish Abortion Journey, 1920-2018

This book reframes the Irish abortion narrative within the history of women’s reproductive health and explores the similarities and differences that shaped the history of abortion within the two states on the island of Ireland. Since the legalisation of abortion in Britain in 1967, an estimated 200,000 women have travelled from Ireland to England for an abortion. However, this abortion trail is at least a century old and began with women migrating to Britain to flee moral intolerance in Ireland towards unmarried mothers and their offspring. This study highlights how attitudes to unmarried motherhood reflected a broader cultural acceptance that morality should trump concerns regarding maternal health. This rationale bled into social and political responses to birth control and abortion and was underpinned by an acknowledgement that in prioritising morality some women would die. 

Diane Urquhart is Reader in Modern Irish History at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, UK. She has published widely on gender, class, women and politics, and marriage. Her books include Women in Ulster Politics, 1890-1940 (2000), The Ladies of Londonderry: Women and Political Patronage, 1800-1959 (2007) and her forthcoming monograph on the history of Irish divorce will provide the first comprehensive history of the subject.