Introduction

The island of Ireland has become a focus for the study of state (in)action across its two legal jurisdictions in recent years. This is owing to the significant constitutional change both in the Republic of Ireland, governed by Rialtas na hÉireann, and in Northern Ireland governed by Stormont’s Northern Ireland Executive and its Legislative Assembly, and by Westminster. These jurisdictions were created in 1921 after the British state partitioned the island. While the struggle for reproductive justice has been ongoing for decades, there has often been little attention paid to this outside of Ireland. State inaction on the island is the result of the historically conservative nature of its institutions discussed later in the chapter, while other European countries had been much quicker to modernize. Despite being a part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland’s exceptional status within this context has further contributed to the retention of antiquated law that in the other regions had been significantly changed by the Abortion Act of 1967.

The conservative approach to bodily autonomy is exemplified by the specific provisions relating to abortion in the Offences Against the Person Act (1861), which was passed by the Imperial British Parliament and remained in force for over 140 years. So although there are two different states on the island of Ireland, feminist responses found common cause because they opposed the shared foundation of legal principles found in that surviving legislation, namely that abortion is criminally unlawful and punishable by incarceration. Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act (1861), remained the basis of the law in the Republic of Ireland until 2018 and remained the law in Northern Ireland until 2019 and stated the following: