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#RepealedThe8th: Translating Travesty, Global Conversation, and the Irish Abortion Referendum

Author: Ruth Fletcher

In: Feminist Legal Studies, Vol 26, 2018, pp. 233-259

The author argues that feminism has been closely linked to reproductive rights, and Irish feminism contributed a significant ‘legal win’ with the landslide vote for lifting abortion restrictions in the 2018 referendum. This win is especially significant when right wing populist pressure is restricting women’s reproductive rights in many coutries. The movement #RepealedThe8th shows how legal tools like the vote can express care for reproductive lives. This paper ‘reflects on the #Repeal movement as a process of feminist socio-legal translation in order to show how legal change comes about through the motivation of collective joy, the mourning of damaged and lost lives, the sharing of legal knowledge, and the claiming of the rest of reproductive life.’