The Women's Right to Choose Group and abortion rights activism in early 1980s Dublin

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Kelly, Laura (2025) The Women's Right to Choose Group and abortion rights activism in early 1980s Dublin. Health and History, 26 (2). pp. 51-72. ISSN 1839-3314 (https://doi.org/10.1353/hah.2024.a952497)

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Abstract

This article explores the activism of the Women's Right to Choose Group, the first Irish group to campaign in favour of abortion. In the three years of its existence, group members focused their campaign on two key elements: the Irish Pregnancy Counselling Centre, which provided counselling to women facing crisis pregnancies and referred those who required abortions to service providers in Britain, and a directaction campaign to bring attention to the abortion issue. Ultimately, the organisation wound up in 1983 with the defeat of the Anti-Amendment campaign and the introduction of the eighth amendment in Ireland by popular vote. Using oral history interviews with original members, archival sources, and print publications, this article explores the personal experiences of the female activists involved, the transnational elements of Irish pro-choice activism, the challenges of abortion rights work in the context of 1980s Ireland, and activists' feelings regarding the legacy of their work.

ORCID iDs

Kelly, Laura ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7996-6021;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)