Abortion and Reproductive Justice Conference‐ the Unfinished Revolution II Ulster University 2/3 June 2016

Abortion and Reproductive Justice Conference‐ The Unfinished Revolution II Ulster University 2/3 June 2016

#RJBelfast16

Conference Programme

Abortion and Reproductive Justice – The Unfinished Revolution II

2–3 June 2016

Page

Map 1

Orientation information 2

Tourist Information 3

Welcome and Speaker Profiles 5

Daily Schedule 7

Abstracts 19

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1 The City of Belfast From the Irish, Béal Feirste, meaning ‘mouth of the sandbanks’, Belfast was granted city status in 1888, before being propelled unto the global stage in the early 20th century as having the biggest and most productive shipyard in the world. Reminders of Belfast’s maritime heritage still loom large over the city in the shape of ‘Samson’ and ‘Goliath’, the twin shipbuilding gantry cranes that dominate the Belfast skyline, and are directly adjacent to our conference venue. Indeed, our Conference Dinner venue sits on the site of the former Harland & Wolfe shipyard, from where RMS Titanic took her ill‐fated maiden voyage. Today, Belfast shows no resemblance to the city whose identity was so tied to the euphemistically‐ termed ‘troubles’ and, instead, is a vibrant, buzzing modern city, ‘famous’ for so much. But beyond its famous (infamous) peace walls, prisons, murals, docks and shipyards – that have inspired so many poets, playwrights and songwriters – Belfast is probably best known for the deep warmth, conviviality and friendliness of its people.

Orientation Information

Conference Location‐ The conference will be held at the Mac, Belfast. A site map can be found at the front of the programme. The dinner (2nd June) will be at Belfast City Hall.

Audio Visual Facilities ‐ All presentations that have been submitted in advance of the conference will be pre‐loaded and available on the laptop in your presentation room. On the day, a member of the conference team will be available to assist with any problems.

Paper Sessions ‐ Session Chairs are asked to ensure that the sessions are kept to a strict time schedule. In the unlikely event that the Session Chair has not arrived when the session is due to commence, the first presenter should assume the role of Chair.

Wifi Access ‐

Username: MACGuest

Password: themac1234

Social Media ‐ #RJBelfast16

Health Emergencies

Royal Victoria Hospital, 274 Grosvenor Rd, Belfast BT12 6BA. Tel: 028 9024 0503

Belfast City Hospital, 51 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7AB. Tel: 028 9032 9241

Dental Emergency Clinic, Belfast City Hospital (RODP). Tel: 028 9063 8486.

2 Eateries close to Belfast City Hall

Deanes Bistro (£££) 34 Howard St., BT1 (0.2 miles, 5min walk) Tel. 02890 331134

Howard Street ‐ 56 Howard St., BT1. Tel. 02890 248362. www.howardstreetbelfast.com

Little Wing Pizzeria ‐ 10 Ann St., BT1 4EF (0.3 miles, 6 min walk) Tel. 028 9024 7000

Mourne Seafood Bar ‐ 34‐36 Bank St., BT1 1HL. (closes 9.30pm)Tel. 028 9024 8544

James Street South Restaurant ‐ 21 James Street South BT2 7GA Tel: 02890 434310

Yard Bird – 3 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LA. Tel: 02890 243712

Coppi ‐ St Anne’s Square (0.7 miles, 15min walk), BT1 4EF. Tel. 02890 311959

Nando’s ‐ Victoria Square, BT1. Tel. 028 90323452 (closes 10pm) (0.3 miles, 7min walk)

Yo!Sushi ‐ Victoria Square Tel.028 90099700(closes10pm) http://m.yosushi.com/restaurant

Places of Interest ‐ http://visit‐belfast.com/things‐to‐do/category/attractions.

Entertainment Guide (gigs, exhibitions, updated daily) – www.LostEvent.com

Belfast Sightseeing Tour (1.5hrs) Tel. 02890 321321 www.belfastsightseeing.com

Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, BT9 5AB, Tel. 02890 440000 www.nmni.com

Taxis

Value Cabs – 028 9080 9080 FonaCAB – 028 9033 3333

Class Taxis – 028 9024 2666 24/7 Taxis – 028 9024 7247

Airports, Rail & Buses

Belfast City Airport ‐ BT3 9JH, Info Desk: Tel. 02890 939093

Belfast International Airport – Info Desk: Tel.02894 484848

Translink (integrated rail and bus service) – 028 9066 6630 www.translink.co.uk

3 clpp.hampshire.edu

Challenging overpopulation rhetoric and championing reproductive freedom since 1986!

http://sites.hampshire.edu/popdev/ A feminist center on peace, population & the environment

Abortion and Reproductive Justice: The Unfinished Revolution II

On behalf of the Organising Committee we would like to warmly welcome you to “Abortion and Reproductive Justice - The Unfinished Revolution II”, an international conference hosted by the Institute of Research in Social Sciences (IRiSS) Ulster University, Northern Ireland. The conference seeks to build on inter-disciplinary learning about access to abortion, activism and abortion politics by posing the question “how does abortion sit within the reproductive justice framework?”

The papers submitted to the conference cover topics such as abortion stigma, barriers to legal reform, medicalisation, human rights, migration, provider refusal, activism, abortion narratives, sex-selective abortion, and religion. The conference will have a strong interdisciplinary dimension with papers drawn from social policy, criminology, sociology, medicine, psychology, history and art.

We will have presenters whose work spans the globe including: Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Italy, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UK, USA and Zimbabwe.

This is the first international conference on this theme to be held in the UK and Ireland and builds on the historic first international conference on abortion held in Canada in August 2014; Abortion the Unfinished Revolution. We have two exciting days of presentations, art, performances, conversations and workshops planned. Our two key note speakers Marlene Gerber Fried and Sylvia Estrada-Claudio both bring with them a wealth of knowledge and insight as academics and activists.

Keynote speaker biographies

Marlene Gerber Fried is a long-time reproductive rights activist. She was the founding president and a long-time board member of the National Network of Abortion Funds and the Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts. She works on abortion access internationally with the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights. She received the 2014 Felicia Stewart Advocacy Award from the American Public Health Association, and in 2015, NNAF established and awarded her the first Marlene Gerber Fried Abortion Access Vanguard Award. She is also a professor at Hampshire College and Faculty Director of the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program (CLPP), an organization dedicated to reproductive rights education and leadership development. In 2010-2011 she was Interim President of Hampshire College. She edited, From Abortion Rights to Reproductive Freedom: Transforming A Movement, and co- authored with Silliman, Ross and Gutiérrez Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, November, 2004.

Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio is a doctor of medicine who also holds a PhD in Psychology. She is a Professor of the Department of Women and Development Studies, College of Social Work and Community Development, University of the Philippines. She is author of 2 books, Rape Love and Sexuality: The Construction of Woman in Discourse (UP Press, 2002); And Then She Laughed: Experiences in Counseling Women (Anvil Press, 2015). She is also a regular columnist for Rappler, the Philippines leading news and social news network. Like most Filipinas, she is known to friends by a nickname, Guy. Guy considers herself more of an activist than an academic because she has spent most of her life working in social movements. She is proudest of being co-founder, and now Chair of the Board of Directors of Likhaan, an organization working with grassroots women on issues of reproductive and sexual health and rights.

Acknowledgments

A number of organisations have generously contributed to the planning and facilitation of this conference. Without this support the conference would not have been possible.

Sponsorship has been provided from the following sources: Civil Liberties and Public Policy, Hampshire College; BPAS; Contact MCR; Safe Abortion Women’s Right; The Open University; Inroads: The International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma; Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment; Amnesty International Northern Ireland; Transitional Justice Institute (Ulster University); British Humanist Association; Kent University; The Graduate School at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Travel Grants The Political Studies Association, UK Irish Studies Group, Alliance for Choice, the Sibeal Feminist and Gender Studies Network provided travel grants for early career researchers and post-graduates.

We wish to acknowledge the generosity of Belfast City Council for the use of City Hall and the provision of hospitality to our guests. The Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRISS, Ulster University) provided financial support and in particular Deborah Coey and Ciara Fitzpatrick who provided administrative support.

Daily Schedule

Wednesday 1 June – informal gathering in Sunflower Pub, 7pm onwards

DAY 1 Thursday 2 June Location 8.15 Registration 1st floor area Upstairs at the Mac (1st 8.45 Welcome floor) The works (4th floor) 9.00 Parallel Session 1 The hub (4th floor) The lab (6th floor) Factory (6th Floor) 10.30 Break

The works (4th floor) 11.00 Parallel Session 2 The hub (4th floor) The lab (6th floor) 12.30 Lunch Factory (6th Floor) An open session to talk about European regional The lab (6th floor) networking as part of the International Campaign for 12.30 Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, and International Safe Abortion Day 28 September. Keynote - Marlene Gerber Fried (Hampshire College, Upstairs at the Mac (1st 1.30 USA), chair Kellie O’Dowd floor) The works (4th floor) The hub (4th floor) 2.30 Parallel Session 3 The lab (6th floor) Upstairs at the Mac (1st floor) 4.00 Refreshments Factory (6th Floor) Discussion Forums The works (4th floor) 4.30 1. Counselling - Erin Mullan and Diane McAllister The lab (6th floor) 2. Home|Collective performance - Siobhan Clancy

3. Amnesty International Northern Ireland Upstairs at the Mac (1st sponsored forum – Michelle Byers and Kellie floor)

O’Dowd, Abortion reform as social movement: Our next steps The hub (4th floor) 4. Open Session

5.30 End 7.00 Welcome reception City Hall Belfast City Hall Conference Dinner Belfast City Hall After dinner speaker – Breedagh Hughes, Royal 8.00 College of Midwives Northern Ireland, introduced by Emma Campbell, Ulster University

DAY 2 Friday 3 June Location The works (4th floor) The hub (4th floor) 9.00 Parallel session 1 The lab (6th floor) Upstairs at the Mac (1st floor) 10.30 Break Factory (6th Floor) The works (4th floor) The hub (4th floor) 11.00 Parallel session 2 The lab (6th floor) Upstairs at the Mac (1st floor) 12.30 Lunch The Factory (6th floor) Health professionals roundtable on NI legal The lab (6th floor) 12.30- challenges – Kathryn McNeilly, Claire Pierson, 2.30 Fiona Bloomer Discussion forums The works (4th floor) 1.30 1. Ethical challenges – Susan Yanow 2. Inroads sponsored forum – Activism – Upstairs at the Mac (1st

Ailbhe Smith, Emma Campbell floor) 3. Open session The hub (4th floor) The works (4th floor) The hub (4th floor) 2.30 Parallel session 3 The lab (6th floor) Upstairs at the Mac (1st floor) 4.00 Refreshments Factory (6th Floor) Keynote Sylvia Estrada-Claudio (University of Upstairs at the Mac (1st 4.30 the Philippines, Philippines), chaired by Lesley floor) Hoggart, Open University 5.30 End

Social Event – informal gathering in Sunflower Sunflower Pub 7.30 Pub for pizza

Saturday 4 June – Yacht Karaoke, 8pm Black Box

*indicates papers submitted as a panel

DAY 1 -Thursday 2 June 9am-10.30am Parallel session 1 *Panel 1 Putting abortion into women's hands Chair: Susan Yanow Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) 1. Putting Abortion into Women's Hands - Susan Yanow, Women Help Women, USA and Kinga Jelinska, Women Help Women, Netherlands 2. 'How can a state control swallowing?' Medical abortion and challenges for law - Sally Sheldon, Kent University, UK 3. Buying Abortion on the internet - Goretti Horgan, Ann Marie Gray and Linda Moore, Ulster University, UK

Panel 2 Abortion - language and discourse Chair: Claire Pierson Location: The Lab (6th Floor) 1. "Because It Is a Baby": Language, Power, Stigma - Jeannie Ludlow, Eastern Illinois University, USA 2. Two Bodies or One? Conceptualisations of Women in English Pro-Life Discourse, 1967-92 - Olivia Dee, Royal Holloway, UK 3. "Out With You Fucking Whores!" - Emma Campbell, Ulster University, UK and Alliance for Choice; Siobhán Clancy, artist / Abortion Rights Campaign, Ireland 4. Conscientious Objection and the Game of Jurisdiction – Sheelagh McGuinness, University of Bristol, UK

Panel 3 Challenging the status quo – activist strategies Chair: Kellie O’Dowd Location: The Hub (4th Floor) 1. Facing the State: Activist Strategies and Manufacturing Consensus in Morocco’s Abortion Debate - Jessica Newman, Yale University, USA 2. From Lobbying to Popular Education: Mechanisms of Change in Alliance for Choice - Derry's Contentious Practice"- Marie-Lise Drapeau-Bisson, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada 3. Animating Abortion Action: Changing from the Inside Out - Colleen Macquarrie and Ashley Fraser, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June 11am-12.30pm Parallel session 2 Panel 1 Mobility and migration challenges in accessing abortion Chair: Emma Campbell Location: The Works (4th Floor) 1. “That’s not for Island girls”: Abortion Stigma as a Barrier to Access in Prince Edward Island - Shannon Stettner, York University Canada; Colleen MacQuarrie, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada and Kristin Burnett, Lakehead University Canada 2. Exclusive Inclusion: Rethinking Mobility, Migration and Abortion Access - Katherine Side, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada 3. ‘'Yo Decido Cuándo’: Youth-led projects on abortion stigma in Spain - Laura Hurley and Marianne Forsey, International Planned Parenthood Federation, UK

Panel 2 Historical and contemporary perspectives on abortion providers Chair: Lesley Hoggart Location: The Lab (6th Floor) 1. Criminals and Consultants: Abortion provision and judicial bias in Northern Ireland court cases, 1900-1968 - Mark Benson, Queen's University Belfast, UK 2. The Long-Awaited Arrival of Mifepristone in Canada: the Benefits, the Barriers, and the Battles Ahead - Erin Mullan, Everywoman's Health Centre, Willow Women's clinic, Canada 3. ‘Abortion doctors are always at risk’: The History of Abortion Providers in Post-Roe V. Wade America - Kristina Carney, University of Oxford 4. Legal but not Really Available: The Provision of Abortion Services in Turkey - Mary Lou O'Neil, Kadir Has University, Turkey

Panel 3 Applying citizenship and human rights arguments to abortion access Chair: Ann Marie Gray Location: The Hub (4th Floor) 1. Citizenship and Reproductive Rights in Liberal Welfare Regimes – relevance for Abortion Politics in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland -Julia S. O'Connor, Ulster University, UK 2. Reproductive justice, solidarity and the (non) universality of human rights -Su- Ming Khoo, NUI Galway, Ireland 3. Barriers to abortion access in Scotland - Hannah Pearson, University of Glasgow, UK

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel session 3 Panel 1 Stigma Discourse Chair: Emma Campbell Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) 1. The politics of sex selection and damaging the right to safe abortion - Suchitra Dalvie, ASAP, India 2. ‘Repeat Abortion’, a phrase to be avoided: lessons learnt from abortion research in the UK -Lesley Hoggart and Victoria Newton, The Open University, UK 3. The 'Deserving' Abortion - Claire-Michelle Smyth, University of Brighton, UK 4. The problem with ‘repeat’ abortion - Carrie Purcell and Lisa McDaid, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, UK

Panel 2 The evolution of abortion law internationally Chair: Linda Moore Location: The Lab (6th Floor) 1. The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012: A Quest Towards Attaining Reproductive Justice in the Philippines - Sharon Caringal, University of the Philippines, Philippines 2. Decriminalising abortion in Australia: What difference does law make? - Barbara Baird, Flinders University, Australia 3. Forward and backward in Spain's abortion rights - Barbara Biglia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain and Patsili Toledo, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. 4. Abolishing Sections 58-59 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and decriminalising abortion - Marge Berer, International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

Panel 3 Barriers to accessing abortion international perspectives Chair: Goretti Horgan Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) 1. Not for You: Analysis of Access to Abortion Services in Alberta -Shannon Ingram, University of Lethbridge, Canada 2. Demand for abortion in Latin America in the Wake of Zika Virus - Abigail R.A Aiken, James G. Scott, , Rebecca Gomperts, , James Trussell, Marc Worrell, and Catherine E. Aiken 3. Access to Abortion and Survivors of Sexual Violence in Ireland -Dr Sinéad Ring, University of Kent, UK; Dr Cliona Saidlear, Rape Crisis Network Ireland; Dr Vicky Conway, Dublin City University, Ireland.

Panel 4 Religious influence on abortion dialogue/debate Chair: Kellie O’Dowd Location: The Hub (4th Floor) 1. Reproduction & religion: Muslims laws and abortion debates in selected Muslim contexts - Anissa Helie, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA 2. Religion and reproductive justice - Emilie Weiderud, Church of Sweden, Sweden 3. "Teaching Morality by Teaching Science:" Religiosity and Abortion Regret - Shoshanna Ehrlich, UMass Boston, USA and Alesha Doan, University of Kansas, USA 4. Repeat ad nauseum til it become a ‘truth’ – “across the island, in all communities, we all agree, we want to stop abortion” - Fiona Bloomer, and Claire Pierson, Ulster University, UK

DAY 2 -Friday 3 June 9am-10.30am Parallel session 1 Panel 1 Multiple discrimination: marginalised groups and access to reproductive health Chair: Claire Pierson Location: The Works (4th Floor) 1. From stigma to where? Sex workers and reproductive rights - Suzanne Lee, Rally for Choice, Ireland 2. Decolonizing Feminism: From Reproductive Abuse to Reproductive Justice - Karen Stote, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada 3. Using a reproductive justice framework: organisational and political challenges - Magaly Pirotte, FQPN, Canada 4. Exploring the barriers to sexual citizenship for people with learning disabilities - Ruth Garbutt, University of Huddersfield, UK

Panel 2 Changing discourse and challenging stigma through visual representations Chair: Lesley Hoggart Location: The Lab (6th Floor) 1. Reframing women into the visual representation of abortion in Ireland via art- activism - Emma Campbell, Ulster University, UK and Alliance for Choice 2. “I told my Mum I was going on an RE Trip”: Challenging Prevalent Narratives in Debates around Abortion and Young People -Julia Samuels, 20 Stories High, UK 3. Sharing Our Stories: Ending Isolation, Shame and Stigma Around Abortion - Melissa Madera, The Abortion Diary, Denison University, USA 4. Spatializing reproductive justice: design ideas for the last clinic in Mississippi - Lori Brown, Syracuse University, USA

Panel 3 Birth control, abortion: the influence of technology Chair: Sally Sheldon Location: The Hub (4th Floor) 1. Overcoming health service barriers to abortion in high-income countries -Sam Rowlands, Bournemouth University, UK 2. Providing the Option to Look: Independent Clinic Workers' Approaches to Fetal Viewing Practices - Lena Hann, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA 3. At the Coalface: Primary Care and the Reproductive Justice Framework - Jean- Simonis Engela, General Practice, Ireland 4. Unintended pregnancy of Adult Entertainment workers- Sharada Paudyal, Centre for Awareness Promotion, Nepal

*Panel 4 Understanding reproductive justice across different contexts Chair: Catriona Macleod Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) 1. Articulating reproductive justice through reparative justice: Case studies of abortion in Great Britain and South Africa - Catriona Macleod, Rhodes University, South Africa; Sian Beynon-Jones, University of York, UK and Merran Toerien, University of York, UK 2. The missing discourse of reproductive rights: Understanding abortion decision- making using a reproductive justice framework in Zimbabwe - Malvern Tatenda Chiweshe and Catriona Macleod Rhodes University, South Africa 3. Reading South African women’s narratives of abortion decision-making processes through a reproductive justice framework - Jabulile Mavuso and Catriona Macleod, Rhodes University, South Africa

DAY 2 FRIDAY June 11am-12.30pm Parallel session 2 Panel 1 Interpreting criminal cases in UK and Ireland and beyond Chair: Mark Benson Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) 1. Space and Mobility in Irish Women’s Abortion Narratives, 1900-1960 - Cara Delay, College of Charleston, USA 2. 'Other women told me how to do it': Abortion networks of knowledge, Belfast 1917-67 - Leanne McCormick, Ulster University, UK 3. Abortion as a Right to Life: The Right to Abortion under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights -Niklas Barke, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Panel 3 Pro and anti-choice activism Chair: Lesley Hoggart Location: The Hub (4th Floor) 1. Not the church, not the state, women must control their fate’; reflections on abortion activism in the UK and Poland - Lucy Jackson, University of Liverpool, UK and Kasia Narkowicz, University of York, UK 2. Radical attitudes towards abortion - Anna Szabelska, Queen's University Belfast, UK 3. Peaceful prayer or invasive protest? Privacy and harassment in actions outside abortion clinics in England - Pam Lowe and Graeme Hayes, Aston University, UK 4. Connecting the Dots of Contextual Practices and Shared Challenges: intersectional approaches to reducing Abortion Stigma and achieving Reproductive Justice across the globe - Kathleen Gillum, inroads, the International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma, USA

Panel 4 Abortion providers - enablers or blockers to access? Chair: Maire Braniff Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) 1. When the law says yes but the doctors say no - Suchitra Dalvie, ASAP, India and Preet Manjusha, Samyak, India 2. In Silence: Abortion Stigma and the “Associated Sin” of Abortion in Thailand - Kulapa Vajanasara and Kritaya Archavanitkul, Mahidol University, Thailand 3. Shifting the Narrative of Conscientious Objection - Jessica Shaw, University of Calgary, Canada 4. Conscientious objection: a morally insupportable misuse of authority - Arianne Shahvisi, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, UK

DAY 2 Friday 3 June 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel session 3 Panel 1 Perspectives on stigma Chair: Colleen McQuarrie Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) 1. Examining internalised abortion related stigma: the role of moral agency - Lesley Hoggart, The Open University, UK 2. A Cultural Politics of Abortion Relief - Erica Millar, University of Adelaide, Australia 3. Adolescent men and Unintended Pregnancy: Opening up the gendered box on unintended pregnancy and pregnancy resolution decision-making - Joleen Kane, Maria Lohan, Carmel Kelly, Queen's University Belfast, UK 4. Unintended Pregnancy Prevention: Public Health Imperative, Clinical Goal, or Reproductive Justice? - Anu Gomez, Stephanie Arteaga, Bridget Freihart and Elodia Villasenor, University of California, USA

Panel 2 Socio economic factors that impact on the struggle for reproductive rights Chair: Emma Campbell Location: The Lab (6th Floor) 1. Towards a Poststructural Understanding of Abortion and Social Class in England, Scotland and Wales - Gillian Love, University of Sussex, UK 2. Circumstances of Unwanted Pregnancy, Reasons for Seeking Abortion, and Use of Post-Abortion Contraception Among Women in Northern Ireland and Ireland Accessing Abortion Through Women on Web - Abigail Aiken, Princeton University, USA ; Lisanne van Tunen, Women on Web, Netherlands; James Trussell, Princeton University, USA and Rebecca Gomperts, Women on Web, Netherlands 3. Adopting a Reproductive Justice Framework in a Predominantly White, Rural and Catholic Jurisdiction: Importance and Challenges - Karen Pearlston and Jula Hughes, University of New Brunswick, Canada 4. Commemorating Morgentaler? Place-Based Reflections on Movement Leadership, Jaime Nikolaou, University of Toronto, Canada

*Panel 3 Legal experiments on the path to reproductive justice Chair: Ruth Fletcher Location: The Hub (4th Floor) 1. Recuperating a constitutional politics of life: Imagining a feminist judgment in the X case -Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary University of London, UK 2. Comparative lessons learned on abortion law-reform: avoiding the one-step-forward two-steps-back trap - Leah Hoctor, Centre for Reproductive Rights 3. Transformative Illegality: New Perspectives on the History of Reproductive Rights Struggles in Ireland - Mairead Enright and Emilie Cloatre, University of Kent, UK 4. Abortion and the Right to Health—drawing on international standards to inform a model of law reform - Maeve Taylor, Irish Family Planning Association, Ireland

Panel 4 Legislating for abortion Chair Mark Benson Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) 1. State Interventions and Aborted Gender Justice: The Experiences of Legislating Abortions in India -Arathi Presennamadhavan, Council for Social Development, India 2. Decriminalizing abortion in the Scandinavian countries - the role of law and medicine in legislation processes 1919-1960 - Kari Tove, Elvbakken, University of Bergen, Norway 3. An analysis of the issues pertaining to sex-selective abortion in India - Sharanya Mukherjee, Hidayatullah National Law University, India and Sudarshini Nath, Hidayatullah National Law University, India.

16 Join the campaign to decriminalise abortion.

#WeTrustWomen

www.wetrustwomen.org.uk 17 18

ABSTRACTS *indicates papers submitted as a panel DAY 1 -Thursday 2 June, 9am-10.30am Parallel Session 1 *Panel 1 Putting abortion into women's hands Chair: Susan Yanow, Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) This panel explores the new reality of women using abortion pills outside of the medical system, thereby taking control of their own reproductive capacity. Papers will look at the legal, social, and practical issues involved when women buy abortion pills over the internet.

Putting Abortion into Women's Hands - Susan Yanow, Women Help Women, USA and Kinga Jelinska, Women Help Women, Netherlands Control of our sexual and reproductive lives is critical to the ability to fully exercise our human rights. Legal, societal, and economic barriers to safe abortion undermine these rights. Across the world, feminist activists have created projects based on a core principle: The key to women’s autonomy is to put information, contraception and abortion pills directly into women’s hands. This presentation will describe efforts by activists to help women access reliable abortion pills via the internet and community-level projects on five continents to expand access to abortion and abortion pills. The panel will present information about reduced maternal mortality from unsafe abortion in Latin America due to these efforts as well as research from the U.S. on the rate of self induction there. The success and rationale for women using abortion pills outside of the medical system, in countries where abortion is legal and where it is legally restricted, will be shared. 'How can a state control swallowing?' Medical abortion and challenges for law - Sally Sheldon, Kent University, UK Medical abortion poses some serious challenges for law. After all, as one commentator puts it: 'how can a state control swallowing?' These regulatory challenges are greatly magnified by the possibilities opened up by the internet, with women now able to access early medical abortion via telemedicine. Historically, prosecutors have preferred to charge abortionists rather than women seeking terminations, whose situation is likely to evoke greater sympathy at all stages of the judicial process. Yet what happens when an abortion provider is based in a different country? How easy is it to prove that a medical abortion has taken place? How does (and should) criminal law figure as part of a modern response to a woman seeking to end an unwanted pregnancy? What responsibility, if any, does the state have to help women guard against the risks involved in sourcing drugs from an unknown, online supplier, and how does this fit with the criminal law framework? This paper, drawn from a larger project on medical abortion and the law, seeks to explore some of these questions. Buying Abortion on the internet - Goretti Horgan, Ann Marie Gray and Linda Moore, Ulster University, UK Abortion is still a crime everywhere in the UK, even though it is legal in Scotland, England and Wales when two doctors say it is needed. In Northern Ireland, the law is still as it was in Britain before the 1967 Act. Northern Irish women still have abortions: if they can afford it, they travel to England and pay privately for a legal abortion. But every year, hundreds of women who cannot afford to go to England buy pills over the internet to cause a miscarriage. This paper reports on the early stages of an ESRC-funded study of the different experiences of women taking the abortion pill legally on the NHS (in Scotland) and illegally via the internet (in Northern Ireland), exploring the issue through the perspective of the social harms caused to women by lack of effective access to safe and legal abortion. The paper will focus principally on the findings from online discussions with women in Northern Ireland who have obtained an abortion using pills bought on the internet. The study raises a range of questions relevant to the conference theme, involving practical issues such as access to services, and theoretical questions regarding the criminalisation of women taking abortion pills.

DAY 1 -Thursday 2 June, 9am-10.30 Parallel Session 1 Panel 2 Abortion - language and discourse Chair: Claire Pierson, Location: The Lab (6th Floor) "Because It Is a Baby": Language, Power, Stigma - Jeannie Ludlow, Eastern Illinois University, USA Of course, reproductive justice is not just abortion; just abortion, however, is absolutely a reproductive justice concern. One of conservatism’s strongest tools against reproductive justice is stigmatizing language, particularly the language of protectionism suggested by talk of babies. But when I worked in an independent abortion clinic in the U.S., I found that many (albeit certainly not all) of our patients used the same protectionist language to talk about the fetuses they were aborting. This presentation explores what it might mean when women who are seeking abortion care use language that some call “pronatalist” or “anti-abortion” to describe their own pregnancy and abortion experiences. It argues that an abortion-positive stance that embraces ambiguity and complexity has a lot to learn about the many layers and vectors of analysis addressed by Reproductive Justice. It draws specifically on my own experiences as an abortion care worker in a clinic that encouraged women to determine the meanings of their own abortions as well as on fictional and poetic texts that demonstrate the fluidity of meaning in abortion narratives. Two Bodies or One? Conceptualisations of Women in English Pro-Life Discourse, 1967-92 - Olivia Dee, Royal Holloway, UK This paper focuses on conceptualisations of embodiment within the English Pro-Life movement 1967-1992 – a period which saw the greatest concentration of Pro-Life activity during the 20th Century, marked by divisive debate. Drawing on original oral history interviews and archival research, this paper reveals the ways in which understandings of embodiment – both of the pregnant woman and the foetus – were variously imagined, articulated and contested among Pro-Life advocates, establishing a ‘spectrum’ of representation. In the literature of more extreme Pro-Life groups, feminist Pro-Choice women were painted as monsters who abandoned traditional femininity. Among less radical groups, women were portrayed as victims of patriarchy or their own hormonal bodies; these groups constructed their rhetoric and purpose around helping these women by supplying alternatives to abortion. Linking these approaches was a discourse articulating the presence of two bodies not one, which meant abortion was the application of harm, to the mother’s psychological or physical well-being and the foetus itself, considered a separate person worthy of legal protection. Overall, in exploring the issues of abortion, this paper contributes to understandings of a neglected theme of 20th century British history, and engages with a range of historiographical debates central to understandings of the body. "Out With You Fucking Whores!" - Emma Campbell, Ulster University, UK and Alliance for Choice; Siobhán Clancy, artist / Abortion Rights Campaign, Ireland Campbell (Belfast) and Clancy (Dublin) are artists working from within the abortion activist community in the Island of Ireland. Their work engages various methods to question the dominant discourse around abortion in Ireland north and south. In their dual roles as artist- activists they endeavour to reframe abortion and challenge each state’s abandonment of women. The struggle is not only for control over our bodies, but over our position as real people with multi-faceted lives. “Home, family, the street, the workplace are reclaimed by women, not necessarily and not only as places in which their equal rights are to be protected by the state as sites of vulnerability, where the transition from a decent citizen to an abandoned body may take place rapidly, at any moment.” (Azoulay, 2008) Faced with fetishisation of the foetus by anti- choicers, both artists are compelled to create work that re-inserts the gendered (potentially) pregnant body into the discursive void through vocal and visual interventions. Addressing the worst-kept secret in modern Ireland, each woman has used feminist approaches to the subject, creating spaces for conversations rarely shared before. Underpinning these conversations is an ongoing critical exchange between the practitioners across political and cultural borders. The presentation will incorporate an element of performance that references a recent exhibition with RFSU in Sweden. Before they were due to discuss their work with feminist activist Emilie 20

Weiderud, the event was disrupted by a smoke bomb delivered with the cry “Out with you, fucking whores!” Conscientious Objection and the Game of Jurisdiction- Marie Fox, Birmingham Law School, UK and Sheelagh Mcguinness, University of Bristol, UK Much recent discussion of conscientious objection in medical practice focuses on a clinicians ‘right’ to refuse to participate in certain medical activities. The corollary to this is the emergent discourse on ‘conscientious commitment’ to providing lawful care. In this paper we consider the nature of conscience in medical practice both with regard to provision and refusal to provide certain forms of health care. We use conscience and abortion care as a case study for our analysis, picking three moments in the ongoing debate regarding abortion and conscience. These are the case of R v Bourne, the insertion of the ‘conscience clause’ (section 4) into the Abortion Act 1967, and the recent Supreme Court decision in Greater Glasgow Health Board v Doogan and another. These moments detail a clear transformation of how we understand conscientious practice and provide the basis for our critique of how we think conscience should be best understood.

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June, 9am-10.30am Parallel Session 1 Panel 3 Challenging the status quo – activist strategies Chair: Kellie O’Dowd, Location: The Hub (4th Floor) Facing the State: Activist Strategies and Manufacturing Consensus in Morocco’s Abortion Debate - Jessica Newman, Yale University, USA This paper considers how the Moroccan monarchy managed the contentious debate surrounding abortion in Morocco, and how the King’s eventual intercession manufactured consensus, effectively ending public contestations on the issue. Abortion in Morocco regained national and international attention in December 2014 on the heels of Dr. Chafik Chraïbi’s dismissal from his position of Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Centre Maternité des Orangers, a public maternity hospital in the capital city of Rabat. Dr. Chraïbi was dismissed immediately following the airing of a news segment on France 2 which addressed “clandestine abortion” in Morocco. Based on 22 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this paper unpacks the unanticipated consequences attending Chraïbi’s firing, including a barrage of national and international press detailing the politics of abortion in Morocco, the organization of a national debate, and the King’s request for legal reform projects. Activists from across the Moroccan political spectrum came together to debate reforming Morocco’s abortion laws, employing public health, religious, and human rights rhetorics to advance their various claims. Activist engagement takes on unique dimensions in Morocco, where criticizing the King and Islam are punishable offenses. News of the King’s request for legal reforms broke during the proceedings of the national abortion debate, and signaled, to some, and end to the discussion. However, the monarch’s management of dissent has important implications for feminist organizing, and reflects more problematic strategies for controlling debate and reform in Morocco.

From Lobbying to Popular Educaiton: Mechanisms of Change in Alliance for Choice - Derry's Contentious Practice- Marie-Lise Drapeau-Bisson, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada On October 8th, 2014, the Northern Ireland Department of Justice (DoJ) set up a public consultation on amending the law on abortion in cases of Lethal Fœtal Abnormality (LFA) and sexual crimes. In contrast to past actions, pro-choice activists in Derry (Alliance for Choice – Derry) refused to devote time and resources to engage in a dialogue with politicians. Derry activists however were far from demobilized as they held several meetings, organised a solidarity vigil as well as an awareness raising action for the International Day for the Decriminalization of Abortion. During both of these events, activists capitalised on recently developed tactics which suggest a change in terms of claims, target and general strategy. How can we explain variations in strategic action through time within this organisation? Based on ethnographic data, I argue that

the internal narrative (i.e. group culture) has a path-dependent like effect on AfC - Derry’s tactics. By becoming canonical, the stories activists tell not only make sense of successes and failures, but also condition activists’ action in the fall of 2014 (Polletta 2006). Based on ethnographic data, I argue that two mechanisms are at play in AfC – Derry’s refusal to engage in lobbying actions and the development of people-oriented tactics, namely (i) object shift (McAdam, Tilly and Tarrow 2001), which changes the relations between claimants and the object of claims, leading to small- scale tactical innovations and (ii) increasing returns (Pierson 2000) which brings together material as well as cultural factors leading to the reproduction of people-oriented tactics.

Animating Abortion Action: Changing from the Inside Out - Colleen Macquarrie and Ashley Fraser, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada Feminist Liberation Psychology (FLP) employing Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) was able to animate change on abortion access within Prince Edward Island -unique among Canadian Provinces for a systematic erosion of reproductive justice most poignantly revealed in anti-choice praxis prohibiting abortion. We share evidence and insights into how a community created change despite religious and political forces maintaining abortion prohibition. Using the principles of FLP and CBPAR, we designed the research to resonate with lived experiences under abortion prohibition with a view to enabling and sustaining attention on the violation of human rights and the entrenchment of inequities. Research conversations with citizens facilitated a growth of awareness of how unfair policies impact our lives and well-being. Creating analytical processes that engage the community strengthened the breadth and depth of understanding and knowledge citizens shared within their own networks. Drawing on multiple technologies to communicate about the findings facilitated the engagement and expansion of the reproductive justice network of individual, community, professional, and political organizations committed to repatriating abortion care. Together we continue to agitate for structural changes to address our human rights violations. The work is ongoing; we have created more change in five years than we have witnessed in three decades and we want to share our insights with you. We are also keenly aware of how easily our rights can be lost and we are interested in collaborating with others on structural changes to enhance reproductive justice globally.

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June, 11am-12.30pm Parallel Session 2 Panel 1 Mobility and migration challenges in accessing abortion Chair: Emma Campbell, Location: The Works (4th Floor) “That’s not for Island girls”: Abortion Stigma as a Barrier to Access in Prince Edward Island - Shannon Stettner, York University Canada; Colleen MacQuarrie, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada and Kristin Burnett, Lakehead University Canada Resulting, in part, from an active and successful anti-abortion movement, residents of Prince Edward Island have not had abortion access in their home province since 1986. In 1995, the provincial government arranged for access to abortion services in Halifax, Nova Scotia, some 330 kilometres away. Despite this arrangement, abortion access has remained elusive for many Islanders. The barriers are multiple. In this paper, we highlight the role of abortion stigma, which can play out rather dramatically in a small and insulated setting, in preventing abortion access. Specifically, we examine how geography, religion, anti-abortion activism, and a number of intersectional barriers contribute to upholding a culture of fear and shame that guarantees the silence that is necessary for the continued suppression of civil, cultural, social, and sexual human rights in PEI.

Exclusive Inclusion: Rethinking Mobility, Migration and Abortion Access - Katherine Side, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada Drawing on three case studies and feminist and activist scholarly discourses about mobility and abortion access, I illustrate the Republic of Ireland's use of a dialectic of gendered and racialized citizenship, and mobility and fixity in the creation of “new geographies of belonging and exclusion” (Ni Laoire 2013, 383). Through analyzes of three case studies, I identify and problematize some limitations in feminist theorizing about mobility, including: use of the generalized category of ‘migrant’ without sufficient attention to its intra-categorical differences; and, the persistence of popular, and scholarly vocabulary that associates mobility for abortion with tourism and that overlooks the fixity of some migrant women. I demonstrate how these limitations uphold narrow conceptualizations of Irishness that excludes migrant women’s belonging to Ireland and to its diaspora. I identify areas of future consideration with relation to migration, and argue these considerations might be enhanced by closer cooperation amongst academics, advocacy groups and activists.

'Yo Decido Cuándo’: Youth-led projects on abortion stigma in Spain- Laura Hurley and Marianne Forsey International Planned Parenthood Federation, UK In 2015, IPPF awarded five Member Associations small grants to carry out youth-led projects tackling abortion stigma. Laura Hurley, Youth Access Gender and Rights Officer at IPPF Central Office, will provide an overview of IPPF’s global Youth and Abortion Stigma programme, alongside a young volunteer from either Spain or Macedonia to present their project results. Spain: Young volunteers at FPFE formed the Yo Decido Cuándo (I decide when) project in reaction to abortion stigma in Spain, and threats to young women’s legal right to access abortion without parental consent. Young people were trained to deliver 92 education workshops to their peers and the project collaborated with the main abortion clinics in the region, to make referrals and provide accompaniment where necessary. Throughout the project, FPFE assisted a total of 415 women with pregnancy-related needs, of which 249 were referred to abortion clinics, with 18 being accompanied.

Macedonia: The ‘It’s About You’ project was set up by young volunteers at HERA to tackle stigma resulting from a high-profile government run anti-abortion campaign. Young volunteers from different ethnic backgrounds collaborated with feminist activists to demonstrate the negative effects of the government’s anti-abortion campaign and restrictive legal amendments. Young people created three short videos discussing the government’s campaign, and how the changes in the law have affected women’s health and rights. A photo shoot encouraged members of the public as well as celebrities and parliamentarians to share their support for safe, legal abortion and to condemn the government’s media campaign against abortion rights.

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June, 11am-12.30pm Parallel Session 2 Panel 2 Historical and contemporary perspectives on abortion providers Chair: Lesley Hoggart, Location: The Lab (6th Floor) Criminals and Consultants: Abortion provision and judicial bias in Northern Ireland court cases, 1900-1968 - Mark Benson, Queen's University Belfast, UK In 1919, an unmarried, twenty-six-year-old Belfast woman died from peritonitis as a result of her womb being perforated during an abortion. Her abortion provider, a doctor, was tried for murder, found guilty and sentenced to death. The jury recommended mercy, the sentence was quickly commuted to life and the doctor was released after serving six years in prison. However, the case involved two other pregnant women as well as the boyfriend of the deceased. The pregnant women were not charged, the boyfriend’s charges were dropped and four other charges against the doctor were also dropped.

This 1919 prosecution reflects some of the complexities and contradictions to be found between the perceived historical attitudes towards abortion in Northern Ireland and the realities of legal and illegal abortion provision. This paper combines data drawn from hospital records, judicial decisions and witness testimonies linked to sixty-five pregnancies that came to the attention of the police. Using case studies, the paper addresses legal and ‘discreetly’ legal provision, patterns of custodial sentencing and demonstrations of personal bias amongst judges.

The Long-Awaited Arrival of Mifepristone in Canada: the Benefits, the Barriers, and the Battles Ahead - Erin Mullan, Everywoman's Health Centre, Willow Women's clinic, Canada Canadian access to Mifepristone, the drug widely seen as the ‘gold standard’ in medical abortion, was delayed and postponed for many years. Approval by Health Canada was finally confirmed in August 2015, with the announcement coming just days before a federal election call. While this achievement is an important victory for reproductive rights in Canada, access to “Mifegymiso” (the catchy name for the Canadian medication regime) is profoundly unequal across the country, mirroring the already unequal access to surgical abortion. The high cost of Mifegymiso for most, the urban/ rural healthcare divide, government policy, and the restrictions places on medical abortion by Health Canada are some of the factors that create substantial barriers. The battle for access to medical abortion in Canada is far from over. This presentation, framed by the perspective of the Canadian abortion provider community, will highlight the lessons learned to- date from the rollout of Mifegymiso, and will examine the battles that lie ahead in order to win fair access from coast to coast to coast. It will also explore the tremendous potential for greater abortion access in under served communities afforded by medical abortion.

‘Abortion doctors are always at risk’: The History of Abortion Providers in Post-Roe V. Wade America - Kristina Carney, University of Oxford The prevailing historiographical model-which places the abortion procedure as the centrepiece for the interrelationship between post-Roe V. Wade morality, feminism, and legality-would be better organised if abortion-providing physicians were centralised to the understanding of abortion history. An abundance of secondary sources continue to examine what many feel to be the three main issues plaguing American abortion provision: (1) the provider shortage, (2) hostility towards abortion training, and (3) violence against and harassment of post-Roe providers. However, such frameworks are limited; they only analyse the external experiences of providers. Shifting abortion providers to be the focal point of abortion history creates new insight into the complexities of the post-Roe landscape. While feminist and legal scholarship continue to place Roe as the starting point for the linear progression of abortion provision, the Physicians for Reproductive Health’s 2000-2003 interview project of physicians who provided abortions before and after Roe disputes this supposed pre/post-Roe dichotomy. While is it well known 'that a doctor isn’t more at risk now than he was, or she, when they were providing abortion during the illegal times,’ it's vital to note the enduring internal experiences not solved by Roe. Personal gestational term-limits often predate Roe guidelines (thereby disputing the correlation between legality and provision). The providers studied tended to acknowledge foetal life-but not at the expense of women. A physician-centred history would suggest that Roe has not been a significant turning point in the professional and personal lives of American abortion providers.

Legal but not Really Available: The Provision of Abortion Services in Turkey - Mary Lou O'Neil, Kadir Has University, Turkey In 1983, abortion in Turkey was legalized. The law provides for abortion through ten weeks on demand. For married women, spousal consent is required and for young women under the age of 18 either parental or a guardian’s consent must be obtained. Additionally, there a provisions for women to obtain abortion if her life or the foetus’s life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of a crime. For more than a generation, abortion has been legal and although rates of abortion have been falling, recent research demonstrates that 14% of ever married women have had at least one abortion in their lifetime. This speaks to the fact that abortion in Turkey is one of 24

many reproductive health choices that women make in their lifetime. In order to develop a full picture of the provision of abortion services in Turkey, this project is a nation-wide survey of state hospitals to determine whether or not they provide this service and under what conditions. Private hospitals that accept the state insurance plan will also be contacted as growing numbers of women are availing themselves of services at these institutions. In order to balance the picture, a select number of private hospitals in each province (il) will also be contacted in order to determine whether or not women are left without access to abortion services or if it is a right that is being relegated to the private sector. The preliminary results are not encouraging.

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June, 11am-12.30pm Parallel Session 2 Panel 3 Applying citizenship and human rights arguments to abortion access Chair: Ann Marie Gray, Location: The Hub (4th Floor) Citizenship and Reproductive Rights in Liberal Welfare Regimes – relevance for Abortion Politics in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland -Julia S. O'Connor, Ulster University, UK Situated within the context of the extensive literatures on citizenship rights and on abortion the focus of this paper is on locating Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland within the cluster of countries typically identified as liberal welfare states, including the US, Canada, Britain and Australia, with particular reference to variation in implementation at the sub-national level in Canada. The project on which this paper draws will focus on debates on abortion and analyse the concept of citizenship rights that underpins, often unwittingly, social and political discourse on abortion in these jurisdictions. It will examine how regulation and access is linked to the empowerment of women politically, economically and socially.

Reproductive justice, solidarity and the (non) universality of human rights -Su-Ming Khoo, NUI Galway, Ireland This paper explores the problematique of reproductive justice in the context of normatively universalistic conceptions of health rights. Taking a ‘history of the present’ approach, it examines normative claims for health as a universal human value (Benatar 2011), enabling the right to health to become the most substantively developed area within applied human rights (Freeman 2002; 2009). Building upon preceding work (Khoo, 2015) establishing a general inter- and trans- disciplinary approach, I draw from bioethics, applied human rights and sociology to consider solidarity, a key value in public health (Dawson 2011). Sociologically, solidarity is seen to bridge pre-modern and definitively modern ideals of belonging, bonding, and inclusion, focusing on the responsibilities of belonging (Pensky 2008). Human rights concepts of solidarity promise that communal particularities can be transcended, expanding and transforming the bounds of ethics, norms and politics through law. Within bioethics, the concept of solidarity “supports the whole framework of social responsibility”, together with justice and equality (International Bioethics Committee 2010), The discussion recalls the legacy of conservative interpretations of solidarism within human rights discourses, representing post-revolutionary, postcolonial and post-secular modernities contesting and delimiting universality (e.g. Moyn 2015). Significant episodes of contention, evasion and confusion are discussed, where conservative social moralities limit abortion, force pregnancy and deny reproductive and sexual health services, information and education (e.g. Bosmans 2006; Beattie 2014, Holland 2014). The ‘liberal’ human rights paradigm appears problematic for normatively gendered ‘vulnerable’ bodies, subject to special, yet contradictory treatment as both ‘less than’ and ‘more than’ autonomous liberal subjects.

Barriers to abortion access in Scotland -Hannah Pearson, University of Glasgow, UK Scotland is an uncommon example of a country where abortion is legally permitted, but where women face substantial barriers to access when seeking a late term abortion, i.e. from 16 weeks gestation. In contrast to the rest of Britain, abortion at gestations over 20 weeks is not provided in Scotland, and provision of procedures above 16 weeks varies considerably between health board regions. Women seeking a late term abortion in the country are forced to travel to

England, in much the same way as their Northern Irish sisters. This situation exists despite abortion being legal in all of Great Britain up until 24 weeks, as made law in the 1967 Abortion Act. My research involved qualitative interviews with Scottish politicians from the various political parties in Scotland, in order to gauge: a) the factors that have contributed to limited access to abortion in the country; b) the political will amongst parties to implement provision of abortion up to the legal limit; and c) the likely effects of devolving abortion policy to Scotland. Using the CEDAW framework to analyse and interpret the data, the research concluded with a number of important findings. Despite cross-party consensus that Scotland’s health boards are not autonomous and should not be able to ignore the will of the Scottish Government, as well as an alleged unawareness from Scottish politicians of the inequities in abortion provision; in 2013 Holyrood ignored a recommendation to provide a national abortion service and opted instead to leave time limit decisions to individual health boards, rather than force full implementation of the legally enshrined 24 weeks. Ultimately I argue that Scotland’s failure to adhere to the 1967 Abortion Act and implement late term abortion provision, obstructs access to justice and constitutes a violation of the human rights of Scottish women.

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June, 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel Session 3 Panel 1 Stigma Discourse Chair: Emma Campbell, Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) The politics of sex selection and damaging the right to safe abortion - Suchitra Dalvie, ASAP, India Sex selection has been practiced in many cultures through home remedies and female infanticide for hundreds of years. However, it was the discovery of the use of ultrasound followed by an abortion that led to campaigns against sex determination in the 1980s in India. Unfortunately somehow it also moved attention away from the underlying gender discrimination and social, cultural, patriarchal norms, putting the spotlight on the medical procedures and the pregnancy terminations that followed. The consequence of this was that some of the rhetoric of these campaigns became anti-abortion, although that was never the intention of the campaign. In recent years, anti-abortion groups have also discovered a love for the girl child. The unsaid message in their communication materials and images is that abortion itself is unethical and immoral. Advocates for women’s right to safe abortion and the right to choose are now facing a serious dilemma. What does it mean to be pro- choice under these conditions? ‘Repeat Abortion’, a phrase to be avoided: lessons learnt from abortion research in the UK - Lesley Hoggart and Victoria Newton, The Open University, UK In recent years there has been growing international interest in identifying risk factors for ‘repeat abortion’, and developing public health initiatives that might reduce the rate. This paper revisits two separate United Kingdom (UK) qualitative research studies, into young women’s abortion experiences, in order to improve understandings of what may influence women’s post-abortion sexual and reproductive behaviour. The research findings demonstrate the complexity of women’s contraceptive histories and reproductive lives, and thus the inherent difficulty of establishing causal patterns for more than one abortion, beyond the obvious observation that contraception was not used, or not used effectively. The terminology carries the assumption of a repeat offence, and assumes that women who have more than one abortion are somehow different from other women, including women who have one abortion. This paper argues that categorising women who have an abortion in different ways, depending on frequency, is not helpful; but also how this may be damaging for women who do have more than one abortion. The second research study discussed in this paper sheds light on how women may experience increased internalised stigma following a second abortion. The 'Deserving' Abortion - Claire-Michelle Smyth, University of Brighton, UK The expanding understanding of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in international law has paved the way for a new line of jurisprudence relating to abortion rights. With increasing 26

regularity international tribunals are determining that in certain circumstances the denial of abortion, whether through legal or procedural restrictions can amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. While this recognition and development is significant it is effectively carving out particular circumstances where an abortion is deserved. International tribunals (ICCPR, CAT, CEDAW and ECHR) thus far have sought to identify underlying events, such as rape or a fatal foetal abnormality in order to ground a finding of inhuman and degrading treatment. This, by implication, means that those who have engaged in consensual sexual intercourse do not suffer a comparable level of suffering when faced with an unwanted pregnancy. This paper focuses on the harmful effects of creating such an ideological divide. Requiring an underlying aggravating element diminishes the impact of these rulings and is arguably creating a situation where restrictive abortion laws can flourish. Instead, drawing on Nowak's developing understanding of powerlessness as an integral element of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the tribunal's attention should be drawn to the inability to exercise autonomy rather than any underlying determinants.

The problem with ‘repeat’ abortion - Carrie Purcell and Lisa McDaid, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, UK Clinical and policy perspectives often frame ‘repeat’ abortion as self-evidently negative and problematic. In Scotland, current sexual health policy suggests that NHS boards need specific guidance on addressing ‘repeat termination’; and reporting of annual abortion statistics typically highlights ‘repeat termination’ rates in its Key Points. Research on providers also suggests ‘repeat’ abortion is viewed as an indicator of service failure (Purcell et al 2015). This negative framing of ‘repeat’ abortion may contribute to constraining women’s reproductive decision- making. We draw primarily on findings from a 2015 qualitative study of women in Scotland who had undergone more than one abortion in the preceding two years. These findings suggest more commonalties than divergences between the accounts of women who have undergone more than one abortion and those of all women seeking abortion identified in existing research. Our findings also highlight the ways in which abortion provision is essential in enabling women to have not only the kind of families that they want, but also the education, career and life outcomes that they aspire to. With the approaching devolution of abortion law to the Scottish Parliament, these findings come at a significant moment, and suggest a need to review which data are collected on abortion and why. Acknowledging that women in Scotland may feel able to access the reproductive healthcare they need when, and as many times as, they need it could be a step toward situating abortion more clearly as an issue of essential healthcare provision, gender equality and social justice.

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June, 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel Session 3 Panel 2 The evolution of abortion law internationally Chair: Linda Moore, Location: The Lab (6th Floor) The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012: A Quest Towards Attaining Reproductive Justice in the Philippines - Sharon Caringal, University of the Philippines, Philippines The Philippines is a low middle income economy with a population of more than 100 million. With more than 1 million babies born annually, it is considered as one of the fastest growing populations in Asia. Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Office indicate that at present, at least four million mothers are below the age of 19, an average of 15 mothers die each day in childbirth and more than half a million cases of abortion are performed in back alley clinics yearly. The Reproductive Health (RH) Law which was signed in 2012 is a product of a long struggle and persistent demand from various women's groups and social movement advocates. The law was and is still being met by myriad criticisms mostly coming from religious groups. In March 2013, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order but after lengthy debates and discussion in the public sphere, the High Court finally declared it constitutional, thereby preserving the core

of the law. This paper presents the process of development of the RH Law taking into consideration the role played by the key players and stakeholders. In connection with this, the paper also present spatial problems and challenges it encountered. In the end, the researcher will argue that that RH Law will not simply ensure the availability of correct and complete reproductive health services but more importantly, it gives reproductive justice a chance in a country and people that most need it.

Decriminalising abortion in Australia: What difference does law make? - Barbara Baird, Flinders University, Australia Both state and federal governments in Australia contribute to the formal regulation of abortion. Abortion has been defined in the criminal law of each state and territory. Liberal court rulings or legislative reform of the criminal law opened up the medicalised practice of abortion in each state or territory from the late 1960s, albeit within legal constraints. The federal government plays a role through the universal health insurance scheme which offers a rebate for surgical abortion when provided privately, the dominant mode in Australia. Other factors, like the cultural politics of the medical profession and the market forces that shape healthcare are significant. Abortion services are unevenly geographically located and prohibitively expensive for many women. My presentation will focus on the three Australian jurisdictions where abortion has been ‘decriminalised’ – ACT (2002), Victoria (2008) and Tasmania (2013). Decriminalisation – the removal of abortion from the criminal law, has long been a goal of feminist and pro-choice activists. But what has it delivered? By turning to the broader context of the regulation of abortion services I argue that removal from the criminal law in these jurisdictions has not brought relief from what many believed to have been the law's effects. I argue for a reconsideration of the liberal focus on the law vis a vis other forces of neoliberal governmentality that shape the provision of abortion and other healthcare services. I draw on various documentary sources and a series of oral history interviews to tell this story.

Forward and backward in Spain's abortion rights - Barbara Biglia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain and Patsili Toledo, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. Women’s right to abortion was achieved in Spain for the first time during the Second Republic (1931-1939). Nonetheless, Franco’s dictatorship (1939-1975) banned it again. It took a decade from the beginning of the democracy to re-legalise abortion, but it was under three restrictive circumstances which gave no guarantee of women's self-determination and whose application was extremely conservative. It was just in 2010 when the Socialist party government approved an abortion law with gestational limit. However, its implementation was uncompleted because the conservative Popular Party that opposed the law and even required it to be declared unconstitutional, once in government in December 2011, systematically contested women’s abortion rights and supported anti-choice lobbies. This paper will critically analyse the legal evolution of abortion rights in Spain, focusing on the most recent developments, both, in the institutional-legislative level and in the feminist struggles. This work will be based on feminist activist debates between psychosocial and legal scholars, with the aim of providing political insight on the complexities of these processes and analytical tools for women’s organisations.

Abolishing Sections 58-59 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and decriminalising abortion - Marge Berer, International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe abortion This presentation summarises what is known about eight cases in the UK since 2009 that have involved criminal prosecution under the Offences against the Person Act (OAPA) 1861. The information comes from thelawpages.com, newspaper reports and journal articles relating to these cases around the times they were happening, and from personal communications. It argues that a combination of factors is leading to police investigations and court cases that are criminalising abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy and self-induced abortions using medical abortion pills. It discusses the implications for law reform and the campaign to decriminalise

abortion. It also calls for a review by legal experts of Sections 58-59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, with a view to dropping them from the Act when it is modernised and not replacing them. Finally, it recommends that a broad coalition of actors ‒ parliamentarians, legal and health professionals, and advocates ‒ should develop legal arguments to present to Parliament and the public for why Sections 58-59 should be deleted from the OAPA 1861, propose reform of the ILPA 1929 in relation to abortion, address the consequences for the 1967 Abortion Act and promote the full decriminalisation of abortion in the UK.

DAY 1 -Thursday 2 June, 2.30pm-4pm Parallel Session 3 Panel 3 Barriers to accessing abortion international perspectives Chair: Goretti Horgan, Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) Not for You: Analysis of Access to Abortion Services in Alberta -Shannon Ingram, University of Lethbridge, Canada This paper examines the barriers in accessing abortion services in rural communities of Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. The overall aim of my academic work is not only to bring increased attention to the historiography of reproductive justice within Canada, but also to lessen the stigma associated with having an abortion. The paper analyzes available information on the history of access to abortion services in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador from 1960 to 2000. My project uses oral history to document the lived experiences of doctors and women that have been involved in procuring, or seeking abortions from smaller communities in the two provinces as noted above. The historical literature that I review will examine the variable limitations women face in accessing abortions, specifically those from rural areas. The paper is also concerned with how the stigma associated with having an abortion not only acts as a barrier for women but also affects the actions of medical practitioners. Overall, I take specific regional documents such as minutes from the Therapeutic Abortion Committees, court proceedings, and articles on abortion from regional newspapers as well as oral histories that I have conducted with doctors who were active on the Therapeutic Abortion Committee in Alberta as well as women that have had abortions. The project addresses rural women’s experiences in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador and places these experiences within the larger historical landscape and scholarship.

Demand for abortion in Latin America in the Wake of Zika Virus - Abigail R.A Aiken, James G. Scott, , Rebecca Gomperts, , James Trussell, Marc Worrell, and Catherine E. Aiken ABSTRACT TO BE ADDED

Access to Abortion and Survivors of Sexual Violence in Ireland -Dr Sinéad Ring, University of Kent, UK; Dr Cliona Saidlear, Rape Crisis Network Ireland; Dr Vicky Conway, Dublin City University, Ireland. Approximately 8% of females attending Rape Crisis Centres become pregnant as a result of rape. With the exception of Rape Crisis Network Ireland annual reports and reports of court cases, very little is known about the particular reproductive health needs of survivors who are pregnant following a rape. Little consideration has been given to the trauma informed needs of survivors of sexual violence as they move through the reproductive phase of their life in a context framed by the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. This paper will set out the results of a small scale qualitative study into pregnant women survivors’ experiences around maternity health care needs and access to terminations. The impact of the current legal regime in Ireland on abortion on women’s experiences will be explored. Particular attention will be paid to: (1) women’s experiences in accessing information about their options following a rape that results in

pregnancy and (2) women’s experiences of accessing terminations in Ireland (3) women’s experiences of accessing terminations in England (4) women's experience of informed consent and autonomy throughout their reproductive experiences. This study will seek to contextualise these experiences within a critical analysis of current Irish legal and political discourse around abortion. It will also offer insights into the potential of the EU Victims’ Directive to strengthen survivors’ rights to information on their reproductive rights. Ultimately the study hopes to contribute to the ongoing national conversation around the 8th Amendment and abortion rights by highlighting the reproductive health needs of rape survivors.

DAY 1 - Thursday 2 June, 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel Session 3 Panel 4 Religious influence on abortion dialogue/ debate Chair: Kellie O’Dowd, Location: The Hub (4th Floor) Reproduction & religion: Muslims laws and abortion debates in selected Muslim contexts - Anissa Helie, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA Legal frameworks inspired by Muslim jurisprudence (also referred to as Shari’a) regulate the lives of as many as 600 million women worldwide. In particular, Personal Status Codes, or Family Codes, impact various aspects of women’s status as citizens, professionals, wives, mothers, etc. Numerous women’s rights defenders from Muslim societies have noted that Family Codes often become more restrictive where conservative religious voices are able to influence, more or less overtly, civil society and/or state institutions. Groups associated with political Islam, especially, are engaged in curtailing women’s control over their reproductive capacities. This paper envisages three main themes. First, a range of religious discourses are highlighted in terms of their endorsement or rejection of abortion. This review of prominent Muslim scholars’ legal opinions points out the fact that – despite the claim that “Islam forbids abortion” – there is no unanimous view regarding the permissibility of abortion across Muslim societies. Second, abortion-related legislations formulated over the last two decades are analyzed. Examining laws and policies from the 1990s onward – enacted in contexts as varied as Iran, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Yemen, Algeria, Bangladesh and South Africa – this section examines their impact on access to abortion services. This section also raises a dual issue: are politico-religious (or “fundamentalists”) groups increasingly powerful in shaping legal frameworks – or do governments adjust legal prohibitions (also) on the basis of socio-economic realities? Finally, the paper concludes with examples of strategies designed by pro-reproductive rights advocates in Muslim contexts to broaden access to abortion.

Religion and reproductive justice - Emilie Weiderud, Church of Sweden, Sweden Faith are often seen as mutually exclusive when it comes to striving for abortion rights. Religious leaders often claim to have a moral obligation to engage in all issues regarding SRHR and specifically on abortion. The religious lobby against gender equality and SRHR is strong and cannot be bypassed. Responding on their home ground is necessary for change. To do this it is not only crucial to understand religion and its influence on societal and individual level but to engage in dialogue. An identity of faith does not contrast or oppose an engagement on SRHR but can rather be a driving force. There are ample examples of faith based actors working for abortion rights anchored in a right based foundation but also theological, faith based perspectives. As human rights defenders in the secular world we do not all need to do religious dialogue and do theology, but we can increase our faith literacy to separate allies from those in opposition. Justice, dignity, compassion and conscience all lend itself to abortion rights specifically through a reproductive justice lense. The reproductive justice framework lends very easily to a faith based perspective, which has been explored by others. The reproductive justice framework, from a faith based perspective would however benefit to be explored further by both secular and faith SRHR actors and activists also as a perspective for dialogue with those more on the fence. What are the possibilities and pitfalls of the reproductive justice concept through a faith lense? How could secular human right defenders and activists work with faith and religion for reproductive justice? 30

"Teaching Morality by Teaching Science:" Religiosity and Abortion Regret - Shoshanna Ehrlich, UMass Boston, USA and Alesha Doan, University of Kansas, USA In its 2007 Carhart v. Gonzales decision, the United States Supreme Court embraced the abortion regret argument to justify upholding the federal ban on late-term abortions. Although recognizing that there is “no reliable data to measure the phenomenon” of abortion regret, the Court nonetheless cited the Amicus Curie Brief of the Justice Foundation that included affidavits from “180 Women Injured by Abortion,” in which they detailed their post-abortion traumas. As discussed in this paper, although much critical ink has been spilled over the Court’s legitimation of abortion regret, little has been said about the originating and consolidating religiosity of this increasingly popular anti-abortion trope that is increasingly being mobilized to limit access to abortion. Drawing upon primary documents, including the 180 affidavits from “aborted women,” and interviews with 25 antiabortion activists, we argue that abortion regret derives from women’s experiential knowledge, which is intertwined with and viewed through the prism of their religious beliefs. So understood, abortion is a disruption of God’s ordering of creation in which all children are wanted gifts and all women loving mothers. While the lived experiences of this select group of women are individually meaningful, they have become universalized to all women. Critically, we argue that what is inherently a religious perspective is now masquerading as a legitimate empirical claim based in women’s experiential knowledge, which is being channelled by antiabortion activists into legislative initiatives designed to restrict abortion access in order to protect women from regret.

Repeat ad nauseum til it become a ‘truth’ – “across the island, in all communities, we all agree, we want to stop abortion” - Fiona Bloomer, and Claire Pierson, Ulster University, UK Northern Ireland’s recent troubled history is typified by divisive politics and a separation of Catholic and Protestant communities in education, employment, culture, sport and housing. One notable exception to this divisiveness is the political hostility to providing women with full bodily autonomy. This paper considers the key political debates on abortion in the Northern Ireland Assembly between 2000 and 2013 and identifies how the political discourse positions the continued legislative gap between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK as a tool of peace- building and community relations building in the region. The research identifies how restricting access to abortion is discursively constructed as an issue which unites all the communities, traditions and faiths of Northern Ireland, ignoring evidence to the contrary. It illustrates how the discourse of Northern Ireland’s political elite is framed around continued conservative attitudes to women’s equality and draws parallels with other societies transitioning out of conflict where elite male actors govern peace agreements and new governments, side-lining or ignoring gender issues.

DAY 2 - Friday 3 June 9am-10.30am Parallel Session 1 Panel 1 Multiple discrimination: marginalised groups and access to reproductive health Chair: Claire Pierson, Location: The Works (4th Floor) From stigma to where? Sex workers and reproductive rights - Suzanne Lee, Rally for Choice, Ireland It is no secret that sex workers are a marginalised group, subject to stigma in their everyday lives, especially as more and more countries (including NI) are choosing to criminalise different aspects of their work. This paper will look at how the stigma and judgement faced by sex workers carries over into them accessing basic reproductive rights including abortion. As we have seen in from the Queens’ and the Dept. of Justice’s ‘Research into Prostitution in Northern Ireland’*, the majority of sex workers are cis women and so access to reproductive rights is quite a large issue and one that is generally ignored by everyone from abortion rights groups to the state. It will also look at how this stigma is perpetuated in the majority of activism in the area of reproductive justice and how activists and groups can challenge this in order to protect the marginalised and vulnerable. Whilst the paper will touch on different areas of reproductive justice, its main focus will be on abortion. The parallels between the illegality of abortion on the island of Ireland and the illegality of many aspects of sex work cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence. The rationale behind both stems from the state’s desire to control women’s bodies and take away their autonomy and the cultural view that women should be chaste and virginal. Overall it is hoped that the paper will broaden the listeners’ horizons and contribute to greater intersectionality within the reproductive justice movement. * http://www.qub.ac.uk/research- centres/isctsj/filestore/Filetoupload, 481166, en.pdf

Decolonizing Feminism: From Reproductive Abuse to Reproductive Justice - Karen Stote, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada This paper complicates what are commonly viewed as steps towards more complete reproductive control for women by discussing how reproductive gains have been experienced by Indigenous women in Canada through rarely acknowledged instances of abuse like forced sterilization, the indiscriminate prescription of birth control and abusive abortions. What is missing from our struggles such that increased reproductive rights for some have amounted to coercion for others? Why do contradictions exist between the sought after reforms of the reproductive rights movement and their implications for Indigenous women and their peoples? Guided by an intersectional approach, this work provides an historical and material critique of the reproductive rights movement and the reformist goals that, by and large, underlay the movement. I argue that by failing to prioritize a fundamental restructuring of the relations of exploitation upon which the current capitalist heteropatriarchal system is based, what is being offered to women by western medicine and the state as reproductive rights actually pales in comparison to the knowledge and self-determination women have held or could hold over their bodies under different modes of social organization. At the same time, these reproductive choices have helped reinforce regulation and relations of colonialism for Indigenous women and their peoples. This work discusses possible ways forward in our struggles by considering feminist and Indigenous critiques that highlight the intersecting historical, political and economic issues that need to be addressed in order to truly claim that our movements are concerned with reproductive justice.

Using a reproductive justice framework: organisational and political challenges - Magaly Pirotte, FQPN, Canada Reproductive Justice as a framework and as a movement has been a great inspiration for mainstream-white organisations working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. But how to use it without appropriating it? How can mainstream organisations, with their rigid structures, shift the power dynamics that systematically value and put in the center stage white-educated- able-bodied- cisperson? Can we actively work on what has been and sometime still is considered as "margin" issues? FQPN is a more than 40 years old organization from Quebec, Canada, working on defending sexual and reproductive health and rights. It has been working for the last couple of years on translating and publicizing the RJ movement. Meanwhile trying to shift its activities towards more inclusive and complex struggles for sexual health and rights. Narrating the journey, the many questions that arises in the process, the complexity of changing things from the inside in organisations, the ways we build solidarities, partnerships, the successes, the mistakes and the humility it takes to unlearn, listen and imagine new ways of doing our work.

Exploring the barriers to sexual citizenship for people with learning disabilities - Ruth Garbutt, University of Huddersfield, UK Historically, T.H. Marshall (1950) described citizenship in terms of legal, political and social rights. Sexual citizenship, as an element of citizenship, refers to sexual entitlements, such as the entitlement to free expression, the right to choose, and the right to participate in private/ intimate territories. It also refers to sexual responsibilities and the right to non-exploitation by others. Theorising around sexual citizenship has mainly been driven by academics and activists from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender movement. The experiences of people with learning disabilities in relation to sexual citizenship, has largely been invisible in these debates. This paper seeks to explore the extent to which people with learning disabilities have status as sexual citizens. This includes a discussion on the barriers they face around the built environment, society’s attitudes, and concerns over vulnerability, capacity and consent.Using sexual citizenship as an analytical lens through which to view the experiences of people with a learning disability I will offer a critique and exploration of the relevance of the present literature to people with learning disabilities.

DAY 2 - Friday 3 June 9am-10.30am Parallel Session 1

Panel 2 Changing discourse and challenging stigma through visual representations Chair: Lesley Hoggart, Location: The Lab (6th Floor) Reframing women into the visual representation of abortion in Ireland via art-activism - Emma Campbell, Ulster University, UK and Alliance for Choice Griselda Pollock has said of feminist artists using photography, “Can we see, with the artists, this investigation into the image as a cultural site of both psychoanalytic experience – of fantasy, desire, identification, pleasure – and of political action, in which their works could serve at once as inquiry and impulses for change?” (Pollock, 2011 p.81) Photography has a history of antagonistic practice, often a significant site for cultural production in opposition to prevailing power structures, feminists have understood its power of immediacy and utilised it from its inception. Feminist practitioners have been successful at parodying the ideas of commodity fetishism and their own ‘dark continent’ of desires most especially when dealing with issues of self-representation and gendered stereotypes. Often their work will have an acknowledgement of the dominant ideologies by referencing popular culture and means of visual communication, in this case, social media. Reflecting on her own photographic practice, Emma Campbell will show how the need for images of women within the discourse of abortion in Ireland remains unsettled “in a culture still struggling to imagine women” (Pollock, 2011 p.81). Not only will she show work that proffers women as whole, fully realised humans, but also as agents of possibility and change within a deeply misogynistic culture, with rigid boundaries of how we are to embody femininity.

“I told my Mum I was going on an RE Trip”: Challenging Prevalent Narratives in Debates around Abortion and Young People -Julia Samuels, 20 Stories High, UK Through creative encounters between artists and young people, Liverpool-based 20 Stories High create authentic, inspiring theatre for young people. 20 Stories High creates work which explores the nuance, subtlety and complexity of issues explored. Our practice allows for a risk-taking approach to discussing and debating issues amongst young people - in a context of wanting to expose and challenge inequality, inspire radical change and crucially engage and give voice to young people. We will present a paper on (and performance extracts from) the development of a new verbatim theatre piece about abortion, “I told my Mum I was going on an RE Trip” that focusses on young people’s experiences and seeks to challenge prevalent narratives and assumptions. Our research has confirmed abortion stigma in relation to young people are particularly acute. The impetus for creating theatre which includes the telling of real abortion experience comes from desire to reduce this stigma, challenge assumptions, and develop a different model of creative practice in sex and relationship education. “I told my Mum I was going on an RE Trip” brings together diverse voices which are rarely heard in a single discourse. Verbatim contributions include: those who are new to thinking about the issue; young women who have had abortions; sexual health clinicians and educators; campaigners; religious leaders and others. The young people involved have their ideas and perspectives framed within broader cultural, religious and political contexts.

Sharing Our Stories: Ending Isolation, Shame and Stigma Around Abortion - Melissa Madera, The Abortion Diary, Denison University, USA Abortion is a common experience. Yet how often do we hear someone share their abortion story? Have you ever? The majority of people will never talk about their abortion experiences, and very few people will ever hear their stories. I started The Abortion Diary (www.theabortiondiary.com), a podcast and the only publicly accessible audio collection of abortion stories, in order to create a community around an experience that can be extremely isolating, and where people could share and listen to these rarely told stories in order to break the shame, stigma and taboos around talking about all our gendered bodily experiences. But it has also become a digital archive and an intervention within the reproductive rights and justice movement. This project asks: What if millions of people broke their silence and told the truth about their lives and choices? What if people could access and listen to those truths? In just over two years, I have listened to and recorded over 150 people bravely and courageously share their true and complex stories. These experiences are quite diverse across geographic location (31 U.S. states and 11 countries), socioeconomic background, age (18-85.5), ethnicity, race, religion and gender, and span from the late 1950s to 2014. This presentation focuses on how this personal project and intimate community of story-sharers has grown into a digital archive with historical value, a way to create culture change and break stigmas around reproductive experiences, and enriches the global discussion around reproductive justice in our communities.

Spatializing reproductive justice: design ideas for the last clinic in Mississippi - Lori Brown, Syracuse University, USA As an ongoing result of the research for Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals (June 2013), I interviewed the owner, director, and now staff of the only remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi. Through these many conversations, everyone made clear that patient privacy and security are being severely hindered by the sheer volume and frequency of protestors the clinic regularly receives. Because Mississippi does not have a buffer zone law combined with insufficient parking, protestors remain extremely close to patients as they approach the building and noise levels often exceed legal limits causing problems for both the clinic and it’s immediate neighbourhood, which happens to be the arts district for the city of Jackson. To address these issues, I co-organized a design call to transform the clinic’s wrought

iron fence in order to create a less penetrable visual and aural border between the protestors and those accessing the clinic in late 2014. Employing an architectural lens, this paper will discuss design ideas we received from the design call as well as our own continued work with the clinic for the future design of the fence

DAY 2 - Friday 3 June 9am-10.30am Parallel Session 1

Panel 3 Birth control, abortion: the influence of technology Chair: Sally Sheldon, Location: The Hub (4th Floor) Overcoming health service barriers to abortion in high-income countries -Sam Rowlands, Bournemouth University, UK The following ways of overcoming barriers to access to abortion will be presented: • Elaboration by Health ministries as to precisely what the abortion law allows • Exemptions or reimbursement in jurisdictions in which women have to pay for abortions • Drafting by professional societies of country-specific abortion guidelines or dissemination of international guidelines for the benefit of health care professionals • Advocacy by clinicians for improved clinical standards in abortion care • Wide dissemination of information about abortion services to allow choice for women • Availability of medical and surgical methods of abortion at all legal gestations • More first trimester procedures offered within a primary care setting • The option of making appointments via a centralised booking system • Delivery of services as close to women’s homes as possible • Special arrangements for women who live far away from cities or towns • Seamless care pathways for the whole of a woman’s journey • Greater participation in all elements of abortion procedures by staff other than doctors • Tightly regulated and monitored conscientious objection • Information and post abortion care provision by clinicians in jurisdictions in which self- administered abortion is prevalent

Providing the Option to Look: Independent Clinic Workers' Approaches to Foetal Viewing Practices - Lena Hann, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA More than one million surgical abortions are performed annually in the United States, resulting in an equal number of products of conception (POC) that are handled in the clinic setting. To date, only one study has assessed patient and provider experiences with POC viewing after elective abortion, even though anecdotal evidence suggests that patients sometimes request to view POC. This paper highlights key findings from a mixed-methods study that measured the prevalence of POC viewing practices, and the experiences of clinic workers who facilitate these practices, at independent abortion clinics in the United States. This study reveals that: 1) Independent clinics have developed in-house POC viewing strategies for decades; 2)Clinic workers’ insights are important to creating best practices that can be shared across clinics; 3) Facilitating POC viewing can combat abortion stigma, specifically regarding knowledge of fetal development. This presentation will situate POC viewing within feminist public health practice, discuss benefits and barriers to providing POC viewing, and offer clinic-established approaches for implementing viewing as yet another choice for women who seek comprehensive abortion care.

At the Coalface: Primary Care and the Reproductive Justice Framework - Jean-Simonis Engela, General Practice, Ireland Social justice and legal reform efforts increasingly ensure that women have access to safe and legal abortion services across a range of jurisdictions. Controversial research in the field however indicates that Induced Abortion (IA) is associated with increased risk of immediate adverse events and long-term adverse consequences with associations persisting after adjustment for confounding factors. The immediate complications being associated with IA include

haemorrhage, infection, and the need for surgical re-evacuation. The long-term adverse consequences being associated with IA include preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies, mental health problems and suicide, and premenopausal breast cancer. Evidence based medicine (EBM) is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence by the healthcare professional (HCP). Proponents of EBM assert that service users have a right to have their healthcare decisions informed by that evidence. In recent years a prominent change in the HCP service user relationship however is that of greater involvement by the service user in decision- making. The published literature, describing the association between IA and adverse outcomes, asserts the probabilities as increased relative risk. The most commonly reported reason for ineffective communication of risk however, is the difficulty the service user and HCP have in understanding the statistics. The use of visual decision aids therefore attempts to improve insight and risk perception and empowers the service user. This paper offers a critique of the available literature and suggests the judicious use of visual decision aids to assist in informing the service user’s reproductive health goals.

Unintended pregnancy of Adult Entertainment workers–Sharada Paudyal, Centre for Awareness Promotion, Nepal Women and girls of entertainment industry (cabin restaurant, dance bar, massage parlor, dohori, karaoke bars) irrespective of massive circulation of family planning methods have been facing the problem of unintended pregnancy. Unintended pregnancy is an important public health and social issue because its negative impact is associated to mother and children. Further, the pregnancy related with the living together relationship and its social and legal denial causes harmful practices like, leaving the newborn child uncared, unsafe abortion, psychosomatic problems and more. This study aims to bring the issue of unintended pregnancy among girls staying with partner of adult entertainment workers. Individual interview with 100 women and girls working in entertainment sector of Kathmandu valley. Focus group was done with 20 girls of same working place and likeminded people related with this industry. The research shows that almost 70% women living with partner face unintended pregnancy. The reason for being pregnant is they were lured in fake love and had assured by their partner that they will marry them and take them home. Almost 50%, partners deceive and leave them after becoming pregnancy of 4-5 months. In such situation the pregnancy could not be terminated. That arose conflict with partner, denial of acceptance from family members; increase in taking alcohol, unsafe abortion practice, mental tension, depression other psychosomatic problems. Besides this, partner trick them by saying they have used condoms but not. Usually the partners refuse to use condoms. They have misconception that condoms give less satisfaction.

DAY 2 - Friday 3 June 9am-10.30am Parallel Session 1 *Panel 4 Understanding reproductive justice across different contexts Chair: Catriona Macleod, Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) Panel abstract: Researchers and activists have been calling for an understanding of abortion in light of broader social, political, biological and economic inequalities among different communities that contribute to the infringements of reproductive justice. How the notion of reproductive justice can be taken up in different contexts requires further explication. Cutting across three countries – South Africa, Zimbabwe and Britain – the three papers in this panel add to a contextual understanding of abortion using a reproductive justice lens. The first paper, using data from South Africa where abortion laws are liberal, shows the insufficiency of a rights only approach as it masks how ‘choice’ in reproductive decision-making depends on the various conditions of women’s lives. The second paper, using data from Zimbabwe, shows how when narrating their abortion experiences women spoke in socially sanctioned manner that negates a rights discourse. The last paper, using South Africa and Britain as case studies, further develops an understanding of reproductive justice by linking it to the concept of reparative justice.

Articulating reproductive justice through reparative justice: Case studies of abortion in Great Britain and South Africa - Catriona Macleod, Rhodes University, South Africa; Sian Beynon- Jones, University of York, UK and Merran Toerien, University of York, UK Public health and rights-based approaches to abortion advocacy are well-established in a number of contexts. However, feminist critiques of these forms of advocacy increasingly suggest that abortion should be located within a broader framework of ‘reproductive justice’, which considers the intersecting conditions that serve to enhance or hinder women’s reproductive freedoms, in particular their capacities to decide about the outcome of their pregnancies. Nonetheless, reproductive justice approaches to abortion are relatively under-developed. In this paper, we introduce a reparative justice approach as a method of further articulating the concept of reproductive justice. We first explain how this approach can be used to conceptualise safe, accessible, and non-judgemental abortion as a key element of reproductive justice in relation to the injustice of unwanted or unsupportable pregnancies. Using Ernesto Verdeja’s critical theory of reparative justice and case studies of two countries (South Africa and Great Britain) where abortion is legally available, we show how such an approach enables an analysis of reproductive justice within the specificities of particular contexts. We argue that both the rights-based legal framework adopted in South Africa and the medicalised approach of the British law have, in practice, limited reparative justice in these contexts. We conclude with thinking through the implications of a reparative justice approach to abortion advocacy.

The missing discourse of reproductive rights: Understanding abortion decision-making using a reproductive justice framework in Zimbabwe - Malvern Tatenda Chiweshe and Catriona Macleod Rhodes University, South Africa Reproductive rights have been at the centre of abortion activism. Drawing on research conducted in Zimbabwe, a country with restrictive abortion legislation, we show how recent calls to understand abortion from a reproductive justice framework could better serve abortion activism. Using a narrative-discursive approach, data were collected from eighteen women who had terminated pregnancies and six health service providers who provide post-abortion care. Analysis revealed that a ‘reproductive rights’ discourse was absent in the women’s narratives and the health service providers positioning of the women. The women employed discursive resources around shame, stigma, religion, health and culture, but not ‘reproductive rights’. The health service providers positioned women as evil, immoral, reckless, irresponsible, foolish, selfish, ‘prostitutes’, and manipulative. We argue that the women and health service providers in this study are speaking in a socially-sanctioned manner that does not allow room for a reproductive rights discourse. Therefore, trying to argue for the access of abortion from a reproductive rights framework in this context is problematic. We argue that a reproductive justice framework can be applied to local understandings of hunhu/Ubuntu: this allows for abortion not to be seen as a ‘choice’ that a woman makes but rather as involving broader social and environmental circumstances that make a pregnancy ‘unsupportable’. The move from ‘reproductive rights’ towards reproductive justice broadens the lens and helps in challenging preconceptions, especially within African countries, with regards to abortion.

Reading South African women’s narratives of abortion decision-making processes through a reproductive justice framework - Jabulile Mavuso and Catriona Macleod, Rhodes University, South Africa Research concerning abortion decision-making processes is rare, particularly research that locates the decision within the economic, religious, social, political, and cultural aspects of women's lives. In this paper, we explore South African women's micro-narratives of the abortion decision-making process, the discourses used to construct these micro-narratives, the subject positions made available within these discourses, and the power relations referred to by participants. Using a narrative-discursive approach and a reproductive justice framework, twenty- five women were interviewed concerning their decision to request an abortion. In analysing the micro-narratives deployed by these women, the extent to which the economic, legal, social and

discursive conditions of women’s lives created unsupported and unsupportable pregnancies and denied and/ or enabled reproductive justice was addressed. Participants (most of whom were ‘Black’, unemployed and unmarried women aged between 19 and 35 years old) constructed an over-arching narrative of the abortion decision as something that they were ‘forced' into by their varying circumstances (that is, the socio-economic conditions and power relations that shape their lives). Women drew on discourses that normalise certain practices located within the husband-wife and parent-child axes and make the pregnancy a problematic and unsupported one. Given this, we argue that relying solely on a reproductive health rights approach to understand practices of abortion decision-making is insufficient as it masks how ‘choice’ in reproductive decision-making depends on the various conditions of women’s lives.

DAY 2 FRIDAY June, 11am-12.30pm Parallel Session 2 Panel 1 Interpreting criminal cases in UK and Ireland and beyond Chair: Mark Benson, Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) Space and Mobility in Irish Women’s Abortion Narratives, 1900-1960 -Cara Delay, College of Charleston, USA In September 1936, a pregnant Northern Irish woman named Rose C. walked to a grassy field just beyond the local chapel to receive an illegal abortion from a man in town. Several years later, Winifred M. visited a café in Belfast city to make arrangements for her abortion; the owner of the café and confectionary later brought Winifred to a private home and performed the procedure there. These cases, and dozens of others that occurred from 1900 to 1960, suggest intriguing realities about underground abortion networks and pregnant women’s geographical manoeuvres in early twentieth-century Ireland. Through an analysis of previously understudied court records and newspaper accounts, this paper examines the spaces of abortion, mobility, and Irish women’s illegal abortion networks in early twentieth-century Ireland. Recently, scholars including James Smith have asserted that Irish women, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century, were trapped within an “architecture of containment” comprised of not only the patriarchal home but more particularly institutions such as Magdalene asylums and mother-and-baby homes. Illegal abortion narratives challenge these arguments by demonstrating the ways in which Irish women moved through space—and thus mapped out their own unofficial health networks—as they attempted to terminate their pregnancies.

'Other women told me how to do it': Abortion networks of knowledge, Belfast 1917-67 - Leanne McCormick, Ulster University, UK The court records of those accused of abortion related offences in Belfast between 1917-67 reveal the operation of a variety of networks of knowledge about how to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. This paper will consider these networks of knowledge and the various ways in which women obtained information about abortion. The increasing religious and sectarian division of Belfast in terms of working-class housing in the twentieth century provides the backdrop to an understanding of how knowledge of abortion was exchanged. The paper will suggest that this division had a direct impact on networks of knowledge as did the marital status of those involved.

Abortion as a Right to Life: The Right to Abortion under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights -Niklas Barke, Åbo Akademi University, Finland Confining itself to whether there is a right to abortion as a right to life under Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights in cases where pregnancy threatens the pregnant woman’s life, this article shows that there is such a right. Certain key aspects taken together - the exclusion of the foetus from all but a very limited number of provisions of the Convention, the applicability of all provisions of the Convention on women, and the reasoning in cases relevant to the issue by the European Court of Human Rights – show that in the event of the death of a pregnant woman, or a serious risk to her life, as a result of a absolute ban on abortion, or where such a death would be due to a restrictive regulation making medical practitioners not perform necessary treatment to save a pregnant woman’s life, the failure to provide an abortion would constitute a violation of the right to life.

DAY 2 FRIDAY June, 11am-12.30pm Parallel Session 2

*Panel 2 Shifts in Abortion Governance and Human Rights: the Circulation of Religious and Medical Discourses on “the unborn’ rights” and Physicians’ Conscientious Objection to Abortion Care in Europe and beyond Chair: Silvia De Zordo, Location: The Lab (6th Floor) Panel abstract - Over the last decade, the rights of ‘the unborn’ have become central in the public debate on abortion in a number of European nations, as a result of different, intertwined, economic-political changes and social-cultural processes. In a number of post-communist nations abortion rights have been restricted due to the political revitalization of religious institutions. Many Southern and Eastern European countries have undergone a dramatic decrease in fertility rates to non-replacement levels, which has also triggered anti-reproductive rights campaigns. At the same time, the dismantling of the welfare state in the New Europe has greatly affected sexual and reproductive health services. Finally, sophisticated pre-natal screening and foetal surgery techniques have transformed the embryo/foetus into a “patient”, contributing to fuel a renovated debate on abortion rights. Anti-abortion movements have appropriated the scientific and medical language and techniques, to support their claim that embryos and foetuses are “babies” and “persons”, and use the human rights rhetoric to defend the rights of these “new bio-political subjects” as well as the “conscientious objection right” of doctors to refuse provision of lawful care. This panel explores how religious and medical discourses and practices are mobilized to restrict abortion rights and access to safe, legal abortion and how different actors – feminist groups, medical associations, leftist parties, women seeking abortion care – contest them on the ground in different European countries. It also investigates how these discourses and practices circulate trans-nationally, beyond the European frontiers, creating powerful exchanges and alliances particularly between Europe and Northern/Southern America.

Beyond Life Itself: The Embedded Fetuses of Russian Orthodox Anti-Abortion Activism - Sonja Luehrmann, Simon Fraser University Canada / Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies When strategies to restrict abortion circulate transnationally, the trope of foetal personhood and foetal human rights plays a central role. In discourses emanating from the English-speaking world, foetuses are often able to obtain the status of a personal agent by embodying biological life at its barest. During ethnographic research among Russian Orthodox Christian activists who oppose abortion, I encountered various theological reservations against ascribing individual personhood to unbaptized foetuses. Here, assigning value to foetuses and asserting their humanity occurs through a process of embedding them in human collectives, such as families, the church, and the nation. As a result, ritual commemorations of past abortion do not turn the aborted foetus into a named individual that iconically represents life itself, but represent it as a protosocial being whose membership in threatened human collectives was thwarted. Through an analysis of interviews with activists, poetry and songs produced by the movement, and the material objects associated with emergent rituals of expiation, I argue that it is this protosocial quality that makes foetuses effective participants in Russia’s politics of reproduction. In a setting where conservative activists argue that the fabric of the social is itself threatened, foetuses represent the weakest, but also most crucial link between a disputed past, a troubled present, and feared or desired futures. Conservative religious activism in Latin America and the Dublin declaration on maternal healthcare - Lynn Morgan, Mount Holyoke College, USA The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare, issued by anti-abortion activists in 2012, argues that “direct abortion” is never medically necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life. The Declaration is an attempt by conservative religious activists to counteract the claim that legalizing abortion is necessary to reduce maternal mortality (defined as women dying from pregnancy- related complications). This paper relies on ethnographic research conducted in Chile and Central America to document instances in which the Dublin Declaration has been invoked to lobby against therapeutic abortion. In Chile, where abortion has been banned since 1989, a controversial 2012 study published by Dr. Elard Koch and colleagues determined that the 40

abortion ban did not result in an increase in maternal mortality; this study sparked a rebuttal from the Guttmacher Institute about the role of abortion in addressing maternal health risks resulting from ectopic pregnancy, clandestine abortion, and treatment delays. In El Salvador, where abortion has been banned since 1998, a woman was provided an emergency Cesarean “induced birth,” after doctors determined that her pregnancy endangered her life. In both cases, the Dublin Declaration was cited to argue that medical and technological advances have completely eliminated the need for abortion. Critics of the Dublin Declaration declare that it is an ideologically driven attempt to manipulate epidemiological debates and ensure that abortion remains criminalized. This paper argues that the Dublin Declaration reflects a strategy by conservative religious activists to appropriate medical and epidemiological discourses and to influence policies concerning reproductive health services in Latin America.

“Foetal patienthood” and abortion rights: obstetricians-gynaecologists' perspectives on abortion in Italy and Spain - Silvia De Zordo, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain and University of Sussex, UK This paper discusses the debate on abortion rights and ”foetal rights” in Italy and Spain, based on two qualitative studies carried out in these countries between 2013-2015 on health professionals’ experiences and perspectives on abortion, its stigmatization and conscientious objection. The first part of the paper examines the political, scientific and religious debate on abortion in these countries, where an important political shift in reproductive governance occurred over the last decade, from the partial recognition of women as moral and political subjects to the recognition of the embryo/foetus as a juridical subject to be protected at the cost of women’s health and rights. The recent increase in conscientious objection to abortion care in Italy and the debate on a new restrictive abortion law in Spain may be considered as the consequences of this shift. However, how has this shift actually occurred? What is the role of religion and of medical knowledge, techniques and practice? The second part of the paper answers this question by discussing the main results of two qualitative studies carried out in public maternity hospitals and clinics providing abortion care in Italy and Spain. It shows that a medical/moral classification of abortions and of women having abortions emerges in obstetricians-gynaecologists’ discourses on abortion in both countries, regardless of physicians’ religiosity. I argue that this classification is based on both gender norms concerning womanhood and motherhood and on the progressive transformation of the embryo/foetus into physicians’ main “patient” during pregnancy thanks to sophisticated pre-natal screening techniques.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies vs. Abortion Laws: Defining Human Rights in the Polish “In Vitro” Policy Debate - Joanna Mishtal, University of Central Florida, USA On July 22, 2015, Poland approved, for the first time in its history, the long-awaited “In-Vitro” policy regulating the use of, and access to, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) to treat infertility health problems. The new policy aims to govern the unregulated and flourishing ART healthcare in Poland. The use of ARTs is strongly opposed by the Catholic church—a powerful political player and the force behind the severe restrictions on abortion instituted in postsocialist Poland in 1993. The new “In Vitro” policy therefore constitutes landmark legislation: the culmination of over a decade of advocacy struggles to expand reproductive rights in the area of infertility care. However, the policy contains religiously-based compromises, including the controversial requirement to store unused embryos for 20-years. Based on research in Poland in summers of 2014 and 2015, I argue that the new “In Vitro” policy and debates surrounding its enactment demonstrate that abortion is at the center of the broader reproductive governance processes and debates in Poland. Specifically, this policy’s negotiations that took place during the Parliamentary proceedings revolved mainly around the struggle to hold or gain ground in the new “ethical order” defined by abortion rights. These negotiations reveal a reciprocal and temporal effect between ARTs and abortion laws, in which previously enacted abortion restrictions are used to limit and define the “In Vitro” health rights, while simultaneously conservative politicians

attempt to craft the “In Vitro” policy so to create future opportunities to launch bills to ban abortion altogether.

DAY 2 FRIDAY June, 11am-12.30pm Parallel Session 2

Panel 3 Pro and anti-choice activism Chair: Lesley Hoggart, Location: The Hub (4th Floor) Not the church, not the state, women must control their fate’; reflections on abortion activism in the UK and Poland - Lucy Jackson, University of Liverpool, UK and Kasia Narkowicz, University of York, UK

The phrase ‘not the church, not the state, women must control their fate’ is a mantra repeated by Pro-Choice groups and individuals when attending demonstrations, vigils and events regarding reproductive rights. Reflecting on this statement, this paper draws on original empirical data to situate conflicts over sexual politics in the public sphere in the UK and Poland. Whilst the two national contexts are different with respect to legality, the Influence of the church, public opinion around abortion, and the very way in which campaigns around this issue take place, we here discuss the similarities and distinctions of pro-choice and pro-life campaign politics. We draw on discourses from feminist geopolitics to look at broader issues regarding women’s bodies, ownership and autonomy, including Butler’s (2004) notion of precarious lives and Nussbaum’s (1995) human capabilities approach to analyse the nature and situatedeness of these debates. Discussing further issues of shame, stigma, morality, and religion we argue that, despite challenges from an active feminist voice in these debates, women’s bodies continue to be seen as something to be owned, dominated and controlled in both public and private spaces. The focus here is thus on who seeks ownership and control and how this is countered in public space through the lens of reproductive rights and activism.

Radical attitudes towards abortion - Anna Szabelska, Queen's University Belfast, UK Abortion is not only a complex issue but also seems to create extreme attitudes in both supporters and opponents of abortion rights. In my presentation I would like to explore the potential factors that contribute to radical attitudes in both pro-life and pro-choice activists. The stances people take regarding the issue of abortion appear to be inseparable from their moral and/or religious convictions which, in turn, form a fertile soil for sacred values and radicalization. I hypothesize that there are two aspects of rules at a personal level. One such aspect is strength of a normative conviction – people may have a weak or a strong conviction that an action is wrong. I believe that the existence of a strong moral conviction is a necessary condition for developing of so called sacred values and further radicalization. The second aspect of moral norms is a type of normative content. Norms may forbid actions involving harm or injustice, or indecency, or disrespect. These different types of content may be classified as different types of moral domains because they may involve different psychological mechanisms. Moreover, these different domains may play a different role in radicalization, and normative disagreement in many contexts, including the context of abortion. I propose to reflect on how those two types of rules may contribute to the attitude towards abortion. Finally I would like to theorize whether then conflict over the issue of abortion is based on factual or moral disagreement and if any type of compromise is possible.

Peaceful prayer or invasive protest? Privacy and harassment in actions outside abortion clinics in England - Pam Lowe and Graeme Hayes, Aston University, UK In England, where public activism by anti-abortion groups has been traditionally weak, there is recent evidence of an increase in actions outside clinics, largely based on US models of activism. In response, in late 2014 BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service, a major abortion services provider) launched the Back Off campaign, calling for the introduction of clinic 'buffer-zones'. As elsewhere, two issues have been central to this debate: whether such zones infringe on established rights to free speech and free assembly; and whether actions outside clinics constitute harassment.

Drawing on fieldwork from a larger project on abortion debates in public spaces, this paper focuses on the conflicting understandings of harassment on different sides of the debate. It examines anti- abortion activists' own understandings of ‘prayerful witnessing’ and ‘pavement-counselling’, which they argue to be supportive activities providing women with choice. Evidence from a dataset of clinic comment forms, however, shows that many women seeking abortion services experience these actions as unwarranted, invasive, and distressing. We argue that although much of the attention so far has focused on the 'shock tactics' of some groups, notably the use of graphic images, it is the presence rather than the conduct of anti-abortion activists that is problematic for clinic users: for many, such actions are an intrusion into a private decision, and thus a breach of normal expectations concerning healthcare confidentiality. The lack of attention to the way that ‘peaceful’, ‘prayerful’ activities is experienced is a significant barrier to reducing the impact of clinic protests on women. Connecting the Dots of Contextual Practices and Shared Challenges: intersectional approaches to reducing Abortion Stigma and achieving Reproductive Justice across the globe - Kathleen Gillum, inroads, the International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma, USA Depending on the legal setting, political history, and geopolitical region, manifestations of “abortion stigma” can look and feel very different and the call for or label of a movement for reproductive justice may originate from very different sources. The International Network for the Reduction of Abortion Discrimination and Stigma (inroads) is a global alliance of advocates, academics, healthcare providers, community-based organizations using a variety of methods to reduce the stigmas and discrimination that attach themselves to abortion and all reproductive health. Inroads network members from 3 different regions of practice will discuss issues of power, stigma, and justice in their respective settings and explore the following topics: -the reality of NGO, community-based abortion stigma mitigation work globally. Specifically that the work is done not by abortion specific but by legal, health system, hotline, disability etc. organizations. -discussions of how the support of abortion stigma allows broader based orgs to cover the abortion needs that they encounter in their broader work. -share the struggles of the demands created by funders not to work on abortion as a barrier to reproductive justice in the global setting and create a group understanding of the need/call for support from new funders and broader organizations to focus on abortion because otherwise they will be prevented by Helms Amendment etc.

DAY 2 FRIDAY June, 11am-12.30pm Parallel Session 2 Panel 4 Abortion providers - enablers or blockers to access? Chair: Maire Braniff, Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) When the law says yes but the doctors say no - Suchitra Dalvie, ASAP, India and Preet Manjusha, Samyak, India The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act was passed in India in 1971 and allows abortions under a set of prescribed circumstances. While considered liberal, the access depends largely on the agreement by the doctor. In the current scenario where doctors in the private sector are refusing to perform abortions for fear of harassment by the anti sex selection campaign, our study finds that women continue to use abortion as a method of family planning, doctors seem to deny services for arbitrary reasons also and the women are left at the mercy of their own circumstances or forced to seek alternative pathways (often unsafe). Unsafe abortion is still among the leading causes of maternal mortality in the country and vastly under reported. Along with the need to ensure accountability of both the public and private sector for safe abortion service provision, there is an urgent need to revisit the abortion law and its capacity (or lack thereof) to empower women, as well as to look at the spectrum of women’s sexual and reproductive rights violations, ranging from child marriages to lack of contraception and an inability to control their fertility.

In Silence: Abortion Stigma and the “Associated Sin” of Abortion in Thailand - Kulapa Vajanasara and Kritaya Archavanitkul, Mahidol University, Thailand This paper examines abortion stigma encountered by women as recipients and providers of abortion care, documenting qualitative research conducted in 2014. Two groups of participants were interviewed: 35 women who had had a pregnancy terminated; and 36 health care providers who had assisted women with abortions. For patients, the study clarifies the stigma associated with abortion, both before and after the abortion. For providers, the study examines beliefs that either prevent them from providing services to women with an unintended pregnancy or help them to feel confident in their role as abortion service providers. Women who had had an abortion typically felt guilty, thinking they had committed the worst sin. Having no choice, their voices remained silent, as they thought they would conceal their abortions probably for a lifetime. Practitioners providing safe abortion were also stigmatized, as people “assisting in destroying lives”; they were considered to have committed “associated sin” through their involvement. Although their services are comprehensive and legal, they also tend to conceal their involvement. These experiences suggest that abortion stigma, including the notion of associated sin, is the most significant barrier to accessing safe and legal abortion services in Thailand.

Shifting the Narrative of Conscientious Objection - Jessica Shaw, University of Calgary, Canada When conscience claims are made in medicine, they are often done so by physicians who conscientiously object to abortion, and who use their personal objection as a reason to deny healthcare. Though conscientious objection claims were initially only used by physicians who objected to participation in abortion or sterilization procedures, they are increasingly being used as reason to object to even referral for abortion, sterilization, and contraception. Hospitals and regulatory bodies are often called upon to make moral decisions about conscience that pit the individual rights of physicians against the individual rights of people who need abortions. At a time when conscientious objection is being used so readily to refuse people the reproductive health care that they need, it is especially important to use reasons of conscience to affirm the provision of abortion care. Conscience involves thinking about things with intention, having morality, and acting purposefully, and I argue that abortion workers do all of these things. This presentation will compel participants to shift the way that we take up arguments of conscience in our own research and practice. If the anti-abortion movement continues to insist on using conscientious objection as a reason to oppose abortion, then we must reclaim abortion work as conscientious. Research and activism that is undertaken in this way then becomes our own conscientious objection to the anti- abortion movement having sole ownership over moral claims

Conscientious objection: a morally insupportable misuse of authority - Arianne Shahvisi, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, UK In this paper I claim that conscientious objection (CO) to abortion is indefensible for two novel reasons. First, the patient and doctor are differently situated with respect to social power. Doctors occupy a position of significant social and epistemic authority with respect to their patients, whose vulnerability exacerbates the dipole. Doctors are rightly required to inform patients that a referral is taking place because of CO, but given the power dipole, the act of doing so necessarily exploits the authority of the medical establishment in asserting the legitimacy of a particular moral view. Second, the conscientious objector plays an unusual and self-defeating moral role. As noted in the literature, since she must immediately refer the patient on, the doctor is complicit, via her necessary causal role, in the performance of the procedure. Coupling CO with a referral requirement means that doctors are not able to prevent abortions, but rather are required to ensure that they are carried out, albeit by others. As such, the operative moral is one that protects an individual's truncated preferences, rather than, say, protecting perceived communal moral goods (protecting foetuses, say). I argue that no ethical theory or rational moral agent would accept such undermining conditions on the practice of morals. Since dropping the referral requirement would mean patients might not be able to accept legal medical care, we should

instead drop the conscience clause, and encourage those opposed to abortion to select other specialties or professions.

DAY 2 Friday 3 June, 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel Session 3 Panel 1 Perspectives on stigma Chair: Colleen McQuarrie, Location: The Works ( 4th Floor) Examining internalised abortion related stigma: the role of moral agency - Lesley Hoggart, The Open University, UK This paper scrutinizes the concept of abortion-related stigma by applying it to an empirical study of young women who have recently experienced an abortion in England. The analysis will consider the extent to which the women felt stigmatised by their abortion[s], and the extent to which they resisted stigmatisation. This analysis will feed into theorisation of the interaction between constituent components of abortion stigma; how these components work together; and individual women’s views and actions. The concept of moral agency is developed and shown to resonate with women’s own framings of their abortion decision- making, as well as their post-abortion emotions. Moral agency is understood as a key element to understanding the interactions between individually internalised abortion-related stigma; and socio-cultural norms and values on abortion, reproduction and motherhood.

A Cultural Politics of Abortion Relief - Erica Millar, University of Adelaide, Australia Scholars have recently begun focusing on the role abortion stigma plays in limiting women’s reproductive freedom. The emotion that often accompanies stigma—shame—stands alongside other negative emotions, such as regret and grief, to weigh heavily on the discursive representation of abortion. This is despite the fact that relief is the most common emotion that women report after abortion, and pro-choice scholars and activists frequently assume that women will experience relief following their abortions. Although relief is a commonly experienced and widely recognised emotion, it has received scant theoretical attention. The embedding of relief in the social and cultural world remains unmapped, despite widespread acknowledgement of the social dimension of emotions. This paper seeks to unpack the cultural politics of abortion relief. What is abortion relief? How and why has it been naturalised in the context of abortion? What social and cultural meanings of abortion are relayed through relief? And can an activist and academic focus on abortion relief constitute an effective political response to abortion stigma and the anti-abortion focus on abortion regret?

Adolescent men and Unintended Pregnancy: Opening up the gendered box on unintended pregnancy and pregnancy resolution decision-making - Joleen Kane, Maria Lohan, Carmel Kelly, Queen's University Belfast, UK International policy rhetoric addressing the issue of adolescent pregnancy has rarely translated into rigorous research on how adolescent men experience an unintended pregnancy, instead research has focused on the experiences of young women. Previous reviews have highlighted a long-standing gender bias in academic and policy research on adolescent pregnancy which has led to the silencing of adolescent males’ perspectives. This paper presents an updated systematic review of the available literature on adolescent men’s attitudes in relation to unintended pregnancy occurrence and pregnancy outcome decision- making in the context of addressing three questions: (1) What are adolescent men’s attitudes to an adolescent pregnancy? (2) What does the research tell us about men’s roles in pregnancy outcome decision-making (3) What are the underlying socio-cultural factors influencing adolescent pregnancy men’s attitudes to unintended pregnancy and pregnancy resolution choices? This review contributes a new focus to the wealth of existing research on adolescent pregnancy by recognising that young men’s perspectives can broaden the gendered discussion. The review establishes a foundation for further research on adolescent men’s perspectives. Informed by Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities, such research

could lead to a re-framing of adolescent pregnancy away from being seen as an issue solely for young women. This re-framing could arguably lead to a more effective and gender inclusive adolescent pregnancy prevention and counselling programmes. Further research would develop the gendered discussion on the experience of unintended pregnancy; in addition, this discussion will broadly consider the role of reproduction in men’s lives as well as women’s.

Unintended Pregnancy Prevention: Public Health Imperative, Clinical Goal, or Reproductive Justice? - Anu Gomez, Stephanie Arteaga, Bridget Freihart and Elodia Villasenor, University of California, USA Unintended pregnancy is considered a social problem in the United States, frequently described as burdensome, costly, staggering, and/or devastating. For decades, researchers have called for the improvement of unintended pregnancy measures, as standard survey questions fail to capture the complex constellation of factors that impact whether a woman describes her pregnancy as intended or unintended. Despite its poor measurement, the concept of unintended pregnancy continues to drive public health imperatives and clinical practice. In the present study, we analyze in-depth individual interview and survey data from approximately 50 couples including young (ages 18-24) women and their male partners to examine pregnancy intentions. We find great variation in how participants’ with access to educational and economic opportunities describe their pregnancy intentions, desires and motivations compared to those that are more disadvantaged. In particular, we have focused on the idea of ambivalent intentions. These data suggest that individuals who appear ambivalent by traditional survey measures are usually not ambivalent at all; rather, their survey responses reflect a superficial mechanism for self-protection or a way to give voice to far more complex internal processes. Given the opportunity for deeper reflection and analysis in qualitative interviews, most participants were clear about their pregnancy intentions and described competing individual, relational and structural factors that impact their expression of pregnancy intentions. We argue that current conceptualizations of unintended pregnancy promote a form of bourgeois heteronormativity that falsely locates the cause of social problems in women’s bodies, leading to policies and interventions that can undermine reproductive justice.

DAY 2 Friday 3 June, 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel Session 3 Panel 2 Socio economic factors that impact on the struggle for reproductive rights Chair: Emma Campbell, Location: The Lab (6th Floor) Towards a Poststructural Understanding of Abortion and Social Class in England, Scotland and Wales - Gillian Love, University of Sussex, UK There is a dearth of research in the UK which focuses on the intersection of abortion and social class, despite previous research which suggests that social class influences experiences and attitudes to abortion. This previous research has often approached class as an a priori category, or defined class reductively as economic deprivation. For example, the literature suggests middle-class women are more likely to have abortions than working-class women (Walkerdine et al. 2001; Smith 1993). This stands in tension with the fact that medical practitioners are more likely to accept or even encourage abortion requests from working- class patients (Beynon-Jones 2012). This is accompanied by contemporary neoliberal, austerity-driven discourse which has reinvigorated the stigmatisation of the working-classes and the welfare-dependent as unsuccessful neoliberal subjects (Jenson 2014). This discourse is gendered, positioning working-class women’s reproduction as uncontrolled and vulgar; middle-class women are expected to define themselves in opposition to this (Skeggs 2004; Walkerdine 2001). This creates an imperative for new research which examines the experience of ending a pregnancy within the contemporary political landscape of austerity, without reifying classifications like ‘working-class’ or ‘welfare-dependent.’ This paper draws on doctoral research on the life histories of women who have ended pregnancies in the UK

since 2008. It argues for a poststructural understanding of abortion and social class, through Imogen Tyler’s concept of the ‘classificatory struggle’ (2015). This approach examines how women who have abortions are classified, who has the power to classify (and resist), and how austerity discourse impacts women’s narratives of their abortions.

Adopting a Reproductive Justice Framework in a Predominantly White, Rural and Catholic Jurisdiction: Importance and Challenges - Karen Pearlston and Jula Hughes, University of New Brunswick, Canada New Brunswick is a small, rural province on Canada’s East coast. With a land mass approximately the same as Ireland, it is home to only about one tenth of Ireland’s population, about 730, 000 people. The political leanings of the province have traditionally been influenced by Christian, particularly Catholic and Baptist pluralities. Access to women’s health care and social welfare has been restrictive, particularly in the areas of abortion access, but also as regards supports for single-parent households, contraceptive care and child care. When the sole abortion clinic in the province closed in 2014, a group of young activists adopted a reproductive justice framework to advance reproductive health care for women and trans people in both official languages. The proposed paper reflects on the use of a reproductive justice framework as highly relevant in places such as New Brunswick. We consider what reproductive justice has to say in racially less diverse jurisdictions, whether adopting such a framework should be considered a form of cultural appropriation, and what the implications for advocacy and law reform will be. The authors are law professors at the University of New Brunswick and members of Reproductive Justice New Brunswick.

Circumstances of Unwanted Pregnancy, Reasons for Seeking Abortion, and Use of Post- Abortion Contraception Among Women in Northern Ireland and Ireland Accessing Abortion Through Women on Web - Abigail Aiken, Princeton University, USA ; Lisanne van Tunen, Women on Web, Netherlands; James Trussell, Princeton University, USA and Rebecca Gomperts, Women on Web, Netherlands Current abortion laws in both Northern Ireland and Ireland prevent women from easily accessing safe abortion at clinics and hospitals in their own countries. Moreover, these laws create a situation of stratified access, whereby those with the financial and social means to travel are more able to choose abortion than those who lack such means. Organizations that provide medical consultation online and abortion medication via mail aim to address this disparity. Yet little is known about the ways in which the women they serve experience unwanted pregnancy and go about choosing and seeking abortion care. To address this gap, we employ data collected from women in Northern Ireland and Ireland accessing Women on Web (WoW)’s online service between 2009 and 2011. We examine the demographic characteristics of women seeking to obtain medication abortion without traveling to the British mainland, the reasons why these women experience unwanted pregnancies, the reasons they seek abortion, how they gained knowledge about WoW’s services, and whether they obtained contraception post-abortion. We then investigate differences in these factors according to women’s level of social support and financial means. As the impetus for political and legal change surrounding abortion in Northern Ireland and Ireland gains momentum, understanding the experiences of women seeking abortion in these countries is important for shaping the research and advocacy agenda and for identifying ways to address socioeconomic disparities in access.

Commemorating Morgentaler? Place-Based Reflections on Movement Leadership - Jaime Nikolaou, University of Toronto, Canada Despite key roles leaders play, leadership is understudied in collective action research. While the earliest focused on identifiable traits leaders share, more promising work connects

leadership to the movement lifecycle. Within this emergent literature, charismatic leaders’ role in long-standing movements is underexplored. One such movement—Canada's abortion rights (AR) movement—is the focus of this research. Given that much of its success has been attributed to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, his recent death becomes a sociologically interesting moment to explore how activists think about leadership moving forward. I ask: How do older social movements respond to the loss of a charismatic leader? Phase One of this project, based on eighteen interviews with Toronto-based AR activists, found that Morgentaler's death opened up space for them to voice their ambivalent relationship to their "leader". While appreciative of how effectively he garnered media attention and public support, respondents are uncomfortable about the extent to which pro-choice success is credited to him alone. Rather than search for a new leader, they propose more democratic strategies that showcase stories of the rank-and-file. Phase Two of this project interrogates the applicability of this finding across provinces. In New Brunswick, Morgentaler's death meant the closure of the province's only freestanding abortion clinic, restricting access to a single public hospital. Differential access raises pressing sociological questions, and, place shapes movement imaginaries. Do strategic responses to a charismatic leader vary by geography? Attending to this empirical unknown, I report on ten interviews conducted with Fredericton- based AR activists in August 2014.

DAY 2 Friday 3 June, 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel Session 3 *Panel 3 Legal experiments on the path to reproductive justice Chair: Ruth Fletcher, Location: The Hub (4th Floor) This panel will consider different approaches to the struggle for reproductive justice on uneven legal terrain. As we gain greater understanding of how legal networks are constituted through the interaction of a wide variety of actors, including service providers, activists, NGOs, health professionals, and legal officials, we need to think through the implications for the theory and practice of legal change. We propose to think about the struggle for legal change and reproductive justice as a kind of experimentation, with a particular focus on Ireland. Scholars and advocates for reproductive rights have developed a significant pro-choice presence and contributed to an extensive critique of the obstacles on the path to reproductive justice. But there has been less timespace spent reflecting on different efforts to implement pro-choice commitments on anti- choice terrain. In thinking about different kinds of engagement towards reproductive justice as legal experiments, we consider the need to routinize, repeat and embed findings in legal practice, as well as the need to innovate and break with failed legal habits.

Recuperating a constitutional politics of life: Imagining a feminist judgment in the X case - Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary University of London, UK This paper reflects on the process of generating an imagined judgment in The Attorney General v X and others [1992] 1 IR 1 (SC) (Enright, McCandless and O’Donoghue (eds.), Judges’ Troubles and the Gendered Politics of Identity Hart, forthcoming 2016), as a legal experiment in recuperating a feminist constitutional politics of life. The imagined Supreme Court judgment addresses the question of abortion’s permissibility under the Irish Constitution through a feminist approach to constitutional rights, legal method and socio- legal knowledge. In keeping with constitutional orders throughout the world, the Irish constitution protects fundamental rights to life, privacy, liberty, equality and bodily integrity, among other interests. However, the 1937 Constitution was amended in 1983 in order to add Article 40 3 3, otherwise known as the Eighth Amendment, which provides: “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” The imagined judgment draws on common knowledge of women’s abortion practice, ethical distinctions between sentient and non-sentient life, and on constitutional jurisprudence, such as Ryan v the Attorney General (1965) and Henchy J’s

dissent in Norris v Attorney General (1984), to argue for a transformative equality approach to the constitutional value of life as it informs Article 40 3 3 and Irish constitutionalism more generally.

Comparative lessons learned on abortion law-reform: avoiding the one-step-forward two- steps-back trap - Leah Hoctor, Centre for Reproductive Rights Globally, more than 130 countries have adopted abortion laws that are more liberal than those applicable in Ireland. In Europe only Malta and Andorra have similarly restrictive regulations. Between 1950 and 1985, nearly all industrialized countries—and several others— liberalized their abortion laws. In the last 20 years approximately 30 countries worldwide have relaxed their abortion laws. Analysis of this tapestry of laws and legal processes and the extent to which they have been effective in practice throws up a wealth of comparative lessons learned. Drawing on this analysis this presentation will outline a series of factors and elements which are often critical in ensuring that reform efforts actually advance women’s access to services and are effective and meaningful in practice.

Transformative Illegality: New Perspectives on the History of Reproductive Rights Struggles in Ireland - Mairead Enright and Emilie Cloatre, University of Kent, UK In Ireland, condoms were regulated by the criminal law until 1993. Sale and importation were prohibited in 1935. In this paper, we use the activities of those who distributed condoms in defiance of those laws to argue for a concept of 'transformative illegality'. We focus on the 1980s and early 1990s - the decade or so between the first ‘relaxation’ of the law, and final decriminalisation. In 1979 the government passed legislation which legalised sale and distribution, but only where conducted by doctors and pharmacists. The new law gave no ground to the illegal family planning movement. At the same time, no steps were taken to eradicate it. In the period with which this paper is concerned - from late 1979 to 1993 - the movement’s situation before the law perceptibly and rapidly changed. Decriminalisation was in sight. By 1993, the family planning movement, its institutions and its practices were an open and public part of the state’s healthcare infrastructure. Our claim in this paper is that these legal changes are the product, in part of ‘transformative illegality’. Those interviewed were not distributing condoms for private profit or advantage. They engaged in various illegal practices precisely because they wanted the law to change. They participated in illegal activities which they hoped would one day be legal, they engaged in political campaigns for law reform which openly drew on that illegal work, and they understood their activities as changing the law.

Abortion and the Right to Health—drawing on international standards to inform a model of law reform - Maeve Taylor, Irish Family Planning Association, Ireland The law in Ireland has tended to act as an instrument of state control of women’s sexual and reproductive choices and decisions and as a barrier to access to the highest standards of health care in pregnancy. During the examination of Ireland by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2015, the state was asked how it can reconcile its law on abortion with women’s right to reproductive health. The failure to answer the question arguably reflects a considered disregard among policy makers of the state’s obligations under various human rights covenants and conventions with regard to the right to health. This presentation will unpack the content of the right to health as it applies to abortion and argue that the state’s obligations go beyond non-interference with the right to privacy and encompass broad principles of reproductive autonomy. The presentation will also discuss how civil society has engaged with human rights processes in this context.

DAY 2 Friday 3 June, 2.30pm – 4pm Parallel Session 3 Panel 4 Legislating for abortion Chair Mark Benson, Location: Upstairs at the Mac (1st Floor) State Interventions and Aborted Gender Justice: The Experiences of Legislating Abortions in India -Arathi Presennamadhavan, Council for Social Development, India This paper observes a peculiar socio-political and historical context from post-independence India in which the nation state took concerted initiatives to bring abortion-right debates. It was unparalleled to the experiences of the global north. Abortion debates in global north were anchored more on women’s reproductive rights and choices, whereas in India, the legislative process figures as the all-powerful instrument in establishing and enforcing maternity rights. It forms an example for the legal validation of patriarchy through the intersection of various exploitative structures embedded in south Asian society and its childbirth culture. The present paper revisits the Indian Parliament debates on Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Bill to understand the political imagination of a ‘welfare state’ on reproductive rights and freedoms. It will probe following questions: how did medicalisation of women’s health become a tool in the process of the legalisation of abortions? What does it entail when a state— especially with a subscribed ideology of Malthusianism—leads legislative action in the pre-text of ‘protect women’? We will argue that the replacement of social solutions with technological solutions is the undercurrent of parliamentary debates on MTP Bill. The social reality and the historical reasons behind maternal moralities were overtaken by the intervention of trained biomedical practitioners in abortion care services. This was without considering the structural barriers in accessing these services. The legal journey from miscarriage to medical termination of pregnancy hardly captured the idea of women as equal rights-bearing citizens but considered them as child- bearing beneficiaries.

Decriminalizing abortion in the Scandinavian countries - the role of law and medicine in legislation processes 1919-1960 - Kari Tove, Elvbakken, University of Bergen, Norway Speeches and lectures arguing for voluntary motherhood were held in Sweden, Norway and in Denmark in the early years of the 20th century. But decriminalizing abortion would take very long time. Legislation decriminalizing abortion was adopted in Sweden and Denmark in the late 1930s, whereas in Norway in 1960. The processes of depenalisations and the abortion acts in these countries have important similarities and some differences, as were the roles of different political parties, women`s organisations and the medical profession. International networks and organisations gave inspiration to groups of actors in the Scandinavian countries. This paper will offer a comparison of the processes of decriminalizing abortion in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, focusing the roles of professionals in law and medicine. Publications and positions from the three countries from the 1910s will be discussed. Official reports were made in all countries in the 1930s, but legislation was adopted only in Denmark and Sweden. Of particular interest is a Nordic law meeting in Oslo in 1934, and the written report from this meeting. The meeting discussed the legal status of abortion and the official reports on abortion legislation and discussions among medical experts. Official reports and the parliament discussions in the three countries prior to the decisions on decriminalizing abortion will be compared. The role of the medical profession, which sometimes represented conflicting views and perspectives, will be compared to the role of the law profession.

An analysis of the issues pertaining to sex-selective abortion in India - Sharanya Mukherjee, Hidayatullah National Law University, India and Sudarshini Nath, Hidayatullah National Law University, India Sex-selective abortion is an entrenched practice that has been prevalent in rural and urban India. While comprehending this complicated and hugely reviewed matter in this particular concern, certain factors like patterns of kinship, issues regarding dowry along with the low social value conferred on women are customarily interpreted to be encompassing 50

explanations of the issue. While it cannot be withheld that such factors are vital in explaining the reasoning behind sex-selection, however this paper has attempted to further augment the existing discussion that performs a sole focal point on cultural practices that highlight patriarchy. This paper establishes the importance of institutional structures in this regard. Specifically, it has analysed state population control policies and the unbridled discharge of reproductive technologies to reveal the present institutional factors that have often accommodated sex-selective abortion the veil of a standardized approach. Further, the existing legal approaches to eradicating sex-selective abortion have been examined accompanied with feminist conceptualizations of the issue to uncover the efficacy and dynamics of institutional responses to sex- selection in India. The paper highlights the relevance of an integrative path for discerning and reacting to sex-selection and female feticide in India, both at the macro and micro level.

RAARN.ca Reproductive Activism and Abortion Research Network

The purpose for Reproductive Activism and Abortion Rights Network (RAARN) is to create a dynamic and interactive online environment for people dedicated to enhancing women’s reproductive justice options. Our goal is to use RAARN as an inclusive resource for scholars, advocates, and activists to share their thoughts, their work, and their strategies for creating change with similarly motivated others.

The idea for RAARN grew out of the recognition that undertaking research is often a solitary endeavour, especially as the body of scholars without permanent academic homes grows. RAARN is a place where you can reach out to other scholars studying similar topics. It also emerged from a desire to help bridge connections among and between front-line activists and academic-activists.

As we grow, the website will offer a virtual networking space where you can access a range of people and their work dedicated to reproductive activism in general and abortion scholarship/advocacy in particular. You can read blogs by advocates and scholars reflecting on the status and trends for reproductive equity internationally. The whole website is searchable so that you can locate information about specific topics or particular regions or activities and publications. Membership is free and members can carry out dialogues on the blogs to enhance collaborative knowledge creation in the network. Members may link their pertinent information including resources they wish to share and how to contact them for further collaborations. Users can access papers, photos, and videos from this conference programme with subsequent conferences adding to the archive.

Anyone can search RAARN and link to the resources but only members get to place their information on the website. There is no fee to join, but you must apply and membership can be revoked if you violate the principles of respectful communication. To apply fill out the application form at raarn.ca. Once approved a member can participate in the commenting function of the blogs, have their information available including links to their cv, writing, and calls for action and organizing in their region.

If you are interested in writing a blog post about abortion and reproductive justice in your area or in sharing your research, please send an email ([email protected]). Stay tuned, and get involved!

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