Mistrust: conservative rhetoric in the Oireachtas 2018 abortion debates

ABSTRACT

In 2018, the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Ireland, which had prohibited abortion except under certain severe circumstances, was repealed by an overwhelming majority of voters in a national referendum. This article addresses opposition in the Oireachtas to the liberal changes to the abortion legislation that preceded and followed the referendum. By employing a critical discourse analysis approach, I identify characteristically conservative rhetoric and arguments used in the debates. Furthermore, I adopt an analytical framework provided by Albert O. Hirschman to argue that the opposing rhetoric employed wasrooted in the conservative tradition: the opponents of the abortion legislation argued both that the changes to the legislation will have the opposite result than intended and lead to unacceptable consequences. The legislation will not only harm society but also undermine the interests of women. I conclude that the opposition to the legislation was based on a mistrust of women, their agency and self-determination. The study aims to shed light on how core ideas of conservatism, such as opposition to ‘excessive’ equality, manifested in the contemporary political debates on abortion and how, ultimately, the rhetoric in the Irish debates fits within the larger framework of conservatism as a school of thought.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Fiona Bloomer, Emma Campbell, Jón Gunnar Ólafsson, Danielle Roberts and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this article. The article was written with support from RANNÍS, The Icelandic Centre for Research, grant number 218204-053.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Throughout the text, I use ‘Ireland’ when referring to the political entity governed from Dublin, not the island as a whole.

2 Iceland, which liberalised its abortion law in 2019, is another example; see Sigvaldason and Ómarsdóttir (2022).

3 A quick note on terminology: Throughout the text, I refer to ‘a woman’ or ‘women’ as they are the main subjects of the debates. The interests of transgender persons was mentioned in the debates, but it was mainly by supporters of the legislation – they thought it should be more inclusive. Therefore, including transgender persons is not significant for an analysis of the conservative rhetoric of the debates.

4 One only has to read the Constitution of Ireland, Bunreacht na hÉireann, which came into force in 1937, to get that feeling. Although drafted by people like John Hearne, its writing was supervised by Éamon de Valera and heavily influenced by the ideas of John Charles McQuaid, later Archbishop of Dublin. In it, the focus is on the family as the basis of society and the place of women in the home. Women’s rights were certainly not high on the agenda (eISB, 2020).

5 Even though the Catholic Church in Ireland has been both politically and socially influential in the past, we should be wary of overstating its influence in present-day Ireland. The Catholic hierarchy may still be very conservative on social matters, but we should not conclude that the same applies to the Irish population.

6 One of the reasons why conservatism is such an influential school of thought is that it has been highly flexible, more nuanced than many of us would like to believe and audacious in its endeavours to oppose extensions of rights and liberties. One of the methods frequently used by conservatives is to appropriate the political causes, as well as the language, of their opponents. This can, for example, be seen in conservative critiques of transgender rights, in which the conservatives have adopted feminist terminology. In the Oireachtas debates, we see how the conservative voices framed the issue as a human rights issue, e.g. the rights of the foetus were being violated. Human rights language is quite widespread in abortion debates and in opposition to women’s rights and gender equality (Hunt, 2021; Pierson & Bloomer, 2017).

7 There is nothing unusual about that; see Mustonen et al. (2017).

8 At times, these accusations bordered on the ridiculous, such as when Leyden (2018b) suggested that his microphone had been turned off while giving a speech.

9 On the role of the Citizens’ Assembly in the abortion debate, see Farrell et al. (2023).

10 Some, like Mullen (2018k), wanted to make performing ultrasound imaging of the foetus and auscultation of the foetal heart tone requirements for health professionals.

11 Although there is some confusion regarding whether they meant notification or consent, as some of the speakers mentioned consent, I think a charitable reader would interpret the general idea as one of notification.

12 Also often called ‘the elite’ or ‘the establishment’.

13 Foster (2020) argues convincingly that this is generally not the case.

14 Although strong nationalist sentiments were not prevalent in the debates, there were references to the 1916 rebellion or the birth of the republic, such as when Nolan (2018b) stated that if the abortion legislation passes, it will mean giving up the dreams and values of the republic: ‘This violation of civil rights is nothing short of an insult to the men and women of 1916 and it greatly undermines the values of the 1916 proclamation which makes reference to cherishing all of the children of the nation equally.’ This, in conjunction with the criticism of other countries, makes one wonder if the speakers believed that Ireland should be something unique, perhaps something pure and protected from the pressures of the outside world. For an interesting discussion on abortion politics in Ireland and nationalism, see Mullally (2005) and L. Smyth (2005).

15 This argument should be considered a part of the perversity one.

16 Some even suggested that abortion could have a negative impact on the economy because of a drop in the fertility rate (Ó Domhnaill, 2018b).

17 As gender selection has generally not been considered a problem in Europe, I focus on the disability aspect of this issue.

18 For a useful overview of the events leading up to the 2018 referendum, see Field (2018).

19 Therefore, there were numerous recommendations for more regulations for health professionals. Collins (2018f) words exemplify the mistrust of doctors quite well: ‘Our doctors did not always ensure, as a matter of course, that the affected parents were informed about perinatal hospice care, palliative care, counselling services, support groups of parents who had received a similar diagnosis or the chance, however remote, that their child might live.’

20 I remind the reader that I am not stating that the individual politicians to whom I refer are conservatives. Reaching that conclusion would require more extensive research.

21 What I have in mind is not whether these voices are representative of the views of the Irish electorate at present, as surveys show that it has become increasingly more liberal on social matters. I am rather wondering whether these views indicate a shift towards the more recent anti-gender sentiments that have become common around the world; see e.g. Kováts and Põim (2015), Kuhar and Paternotte (2017) and Verloo and Paternotte (2018).

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Gunnar Sigvaldason

Gunnar Sigvaldason is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Iceland. His PhD project investigates the contemporary conservative movement, specifically its views on the extension of rights and liberties of women. In his present research he mostly focuses on Iceland and Ireland.