The debate in Ireland thus cannot be separated from a wider global political climate in which reproductive autonomy is increasingly being treated as socially destabilising and in need of policing. Across the US, a rollback of abortion rights has unfolded alongside escalating attacks on contraception access, sex education and trans rights, all under the language of “protection”, “family values” and concern for long-term wellbeing. At the same time, a growing pronatalist movement – fuelled by anxiety around falling birthrates, demographic panic and deeply conservative ideas about gender – increasingly frames women’s independence, queer lives and reproductive choice as cultural threats.
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