Catching Fire

For more than a generation, activists and advocacy organizations have been instrumental in agitating for women's health reforms in Ireland. Over the last decade, Irish activists have experienced a number of victories to improve women's health, most notably in 2018 when Ireland passed a referendum to repeal the Eighth amendment, a constitutional ban on abortion. After years of unfavorable laws for women and successive scandals in women's health, Ireland has taken transformative steps to redefine social norms surrounding women's health and reproduction. The case of Ireland's women's health reform offers important insight toward furthering the modern global movement for women's autonomy. Catching Fire narrates the rise of women's health activism in Ireland within a global reproductive justice framework, which aims to understand and dismantle the systems of social inequality that shape, oppress, and restrict reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. The volume focuses on attempts by Irish healthcare reformers and activists to improve Irish women's access to essential healthcare services and links key developments in Irish history to reproductive advocacy efforts in America and beyond. Chapters offer historical context behind the modern reproductive justice movement through case studies on women's health issues such as contraception, abortion, and childbirth in Ireland. Together, these case studies celebrate the ingenuity of Irish activists who personalized reproductive justice through the stories of ordinary women on social media and established the Republic of Ireland as a model for future activist movements. Reaching across groups and eras, Catching Fire highlights the underrecognized historical feminist movements supporting recent women's health activism and the enduring lessons for achieving greater gender equity around the globe.

Beth Sundstrom, PhD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Communication and Public Health at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, where she is also Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) and Founding Co-Director of the Women's Health Research Team. Dr. Sundstrom conducts applied research that informs the development of community-based public health interventions and nationally recognized communication campaigns. She is a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Research Grant recipient and leading expert on health communication, social marketing, and women's health. She is the author of three books and more than 70 peer-reviewed publications in such outlets as Social Science & Medicine, Contraception, and the Journal of Health Communication, among others. Cara Delay, PhD, is Professor of History and Co-Director of the Women's Health Research Team at the College of Charleston, South Carolina. Her research analyzes women, gender, and culture in Ireland, the American South, and the Atlantic World, with a particular focus on the history of reproduction. Her award-winning body of scholarship includes more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters. She is the author of Irish Women and the Creation of Modern Catholicism, 1850-1950 (Manchester University Press, 2019) and the forthcoming Menstruation: A Global History (Polity Press).

IntroductionChapter One: Cervical Cancer PreventionChapter Two: ContraceptionChapter Three: AbortionChapter Four: Pregnancy Chapter Five: ChildbirthChapter Six: Obstetric Violence: Symphysiotomies and HysterectomiesConclusion
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