And the Bans Went On
By Kate O’Flanagan
Anti-choice posters have begun to crop up in Cork city. An anti-choice demonstration was held in Dublin in September. The overturning of the landmark Roe V. Wade in the United States, removing the constitutional right to abortion, has reinvigorated anti-choice groups worldwide. In Ireland, these groups are focusing on the independent review into abortion services commissioned by the HSE. Thus far, the review has focused on where abortion access and care are lacking.
Banning or restricting abortion in the United States has wide ranging implications beyond the immediate accessibility of legal, safe pregnancy termination. Medications that can be used to induce abortion are also used to treat conditions from chronic pain to cancer, ulcers to acne. Between politically motivated refusals from rightwing healthcare providers and caution from others afraid to dispense necessary drugs for fear of being prosecuted under abortion bans, cis women and people assigned female at birth (henceforth referred to in this article as AFAB) in anti-choice states are finding themselves unable to access a range of medications.
Taken by almost 60 per cent of all rheumatoid arthritis patients, methotrexate is the gold standard drug used in the treatment of autoimmune diseases that affect the connective tissue. Though not often used in the provision of abortion, high doses of methotrexate can terminate a pregnancy. When it is used, it is usually injected to treat an ectopic pregnancy. Occurring in 1 out of every 50 pregnancies, ectopic pregnancies are unviable and frequently have life-threatening implications for the pregnant person. Prescriptions for methotrexate to combat chronic pain and inflammation are being left unfilled for cis women and AFAB people of 'childbearing age' in the United States. Teenagers are being forced to prove they are not pregnant in order to access the medicine they need to live relatively pain-free lives. The banning of abortion has ushered in an era of sex-segregated medical care where cis women and AFAB people will suffer.
In the same political climate that facilitated the overturning of Roe V. Wade, there has been an unprecedented acceleration of book censorship. More than 2,500 book bans have taken place across the US in the last school year. This totals 1,648 individual titles being banned by 138 school districts in 32 states. Book bans are not new to the American education system, though past bans have mostly been driven by the complaints of individual parents. The current string of book bans are the result of efforts by organised, ideological groups, and overt pressure from politicians, with 40% of the bans in the last year having connections to political pressure or legislation designed to control what concepts can be taught in the classroom. Republican stronghold Texas led the way with book bans, followed by Florida, which has shifted increasingly rightward in recent years, and Pennsylvania, a swing state. The LGBTQ+ community is a major target of these bans, with 41%of banned books focusing on LGBTQ+ themes, protagonists, or prominent secondary characters. Only one percentage point behind, race and discussions of racism are also being targeted – 40%of books feature prominent characters of colour.
Ireland is no stranger to banning literature. In 1926, the Committee on Evil Literature, consisting of one layman and two clergymen, defined ‘obscene’ and ‘morally corrupting’ literature. This definition was wide-ranging, encompassing tabloid newspapers, fashion magazines, and birth control literature. On the recommendation of the Committee, the Censorship of Publications Board was established, which from 1930 to 2016, banned over 12,000 publications – sex education manuals to celebrity memoirs, pulp fiction to celebrated works from the 20th century canon. Only one book has been banned since 1998, with the twelve-year limitation on the remaining banned books running out in 2010.
However, even after their twelve-year limitation passed, eight books remained banned indefinitely. While books were mostly banned in Ireland for being ‘obscene’, they could also be banned for advocating the procurement of abortion or miscarriage, or the use of any method, treatment, or appliance for the purpose of procuring an abortion. Three of the books were explicitly about abortion: Abortion Internationally (banned in 1983), Abortion: Our Struggle for Control (banned in 1983), Abortion: Right or Wrong (banned in 1942). The remaining five were sex guides. Due to different legislature concerning abortion literature, the eight books were exempt from the twelve-year limitation on book bans and remained banned until abortion was legalised.
Explicit censorship laws are not the only way to control the spread of information. In 1989, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) brought the student unions of Trinity, UCD, and DCU to court over their distribution of information about accessing abortion abroad. Despite the legal implications and challenges faced by the unions, they were one of the only places where this information and support was readily available; a monumental response to unjust laws, and an inspiring example of students supporting each other. An injunction was granted restraining the unions from continuing to distribute the information. This decision set an unsettling precedent and raised crucial questions: does making an act illegal make information about the act illegal? Can the state ban knowledge of medical procedures outside their jurisdiction?
These questions were answered by a 1992 referendum. The people of Ireland said a resounding ‘no’. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland specified that the state’s ban on abortion did not, respectively, limit freedom of travel in and out of the state or prevent the distribution of information about services in foreign countries. While requiring the residents of your country to enter another jurisdiction to obtain a medical procedure is not laudable, the outcome was significant and paved the way for the legalisation of abortion twenty-six years later.
Further attacks on bodily autonomy are occurring across the United States in the form of a record number of anti-trans bills. The 155 bills introduced by October 15th of this year attack trans people across the board, from sports bans to ID and gender-affirming care restrictions. The LGBTQ+ community as a whole is also being targeted via the introduction of religious exemption laws which allow organisations to refuse goods, services, and employment to LGBTQ+ people on religious grounds and educational restrictions which bar or restrict discussions of sexuality and gender, all the way to the final year of high school in some cases. Misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia are intertwined. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group spearheading the fight against abortion access are credited with helping to write a bill to prevent trans girls from playing on girls' sports teams. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
The Venn diagram of the forces behind book bans, anti-trans legislature, and the restriction of reproductive rights is one circle. Controlling people's bodies and what they read, or by extension think, are attempts to roll back the tide of history. The legality of abortion is more stable in Ireland than in the US, we no longer ban swathes of books due to religious definitions of obscenity, but the status of trans rights in this country is far from perfect.
The fight isn't over. Not in Ireland, not in the United States, not anywhere.