Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Politics and International Relations

Reader 1

Sumita Pahwa

Reader 2

Jean Schroedel

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Abstract

Legal parameters around abortion shifted immensely in the years 2022 and 2018 in the United States and Ireland respectively. Though the United States has historically been seen as relatively permissive in its abortion policy and Ireland has conversely been understood to be highly restrictive, the two nations moved away from these positions, with the US allowing a lesser degree of reproductive freedom while Ireland allowed a greater degree than ever before.

To understand these major shifts in abortion policy and the forces behind them, I conduct a comparative analysis of the modern movements in each nation to change the status of abortion rights and access, beginning in the 1960s and ending in the present day. Through such analysis I identify elements of similarity between the two cases and thus potential lessons the struggle for reproductive freedoms in the United States may glean from Ireland, but I additionally discover highly salient differences which prevent the issue from functioning in the same way across the two nations.

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