Following the legalisation of abortion in Ireland (2018) and Northern Ireland (2019), the term ‘self-managed abortion’ (SMA) has become increasingly common and is used to describe a diversity of abortion care models. These include clinical SMA, provided by registered medical practitioners, and autonomous SMA, occurring outside the medico-legal framework. Despite advances in abortion provision, confusion remains about the regulation of distinctive SMA models in Ireland. This paper clarifies these regimes, presenting SMA as a spectrum of care models governed by distinct legal and policy frameworks which differentially influence individual's access to and experience of abortion care. Specifically, the paper reaffirms SMA as both a historical practice and a social movement which emerged within and in response to systems of reproductive control and surveillance across the island of Ireland. It highlights SMA as a form of counter-reproductive governance shaped by women's experiential knowledge, feminist activism, and intersecting religious, social, and legal norms. By examining these factors, this paper argues that the contemporary legal and policy treatment of clinical and autonomous SMA should be understood not as a dismantling but as a reconfiguration of longstanding regulatory logics.
Aideen O’Shaughnessy (Tue,) studied this question.