LARABII colleague Dr Fiona Bloomer was recently interviewed by Rás 2’s Spegillinn about changes to abortion law in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Dr Bloomer, who is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at Ulster University, was a keynote speaker at The politics of abortion in Iceland, Ireland & Northern Ireland, the inaugural conference of the LARABII project. The conference took place at the University of Iceland on 18 and 19 May, and featured scholars based in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Canada, and the US, as well as Iceland-based scholars. Other keynote panellists included: Professor David Farrell (Chair of Politics at University College Dublin), Þórhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir (member of the Althing for the Pirate Party), and Ivana Bacik (leader of Ireland’s Labour Party).
In her remarks to Spegillinn, Dr Bloomer described the consequences of the abortion bans in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the different routes that they took to liberalising their laws in recent years. There was also discussion of the global backlash against abortion rights, particularly as witnessed in the US and Poland, and the factors that have led to this phenomenon.
The interview with Dr Bloomer was broadcast at approximately 9 minutes into the 27 May episode of Spegillinn. You can listen to the clip (in Icelandic, with Dr Bloomer’s comments in English) on the RÚV website.
