Pills and Protest - by Brenna McCaffrey (Hardcover)

About the Book

The story of the abortion pill and its role in ending Ireland's abortion ban - and what this means for the fight to free abortion globally

Book Synopsis

The Republic of Ireland lived under one of the strictest abortion bans in Europe for decades, then in 2018, their voters passed one of the most liberal abortion provision schemes in the world.

Pills & Protest: Abortion Access in Ireland tells the story of how feminist activists strategically used abortion pills to help people while abortion was illegal and to influence the legal and medical changes to come. Drawing on three years of interviews with activists, doctors, and politicians in Ireland, Brenna McCaffrey illuminates the story of how the abortion pill transitioned from a controversial object to a legally recognized medical solution. The result is an energizing story - one of creative protest, passion, and activism in pursuit of reproductive freedom. Pills and Protest demonstrates how understanding medication abortion is essential to understanding reproductive healthcare in Ireland - and globally - today.

Review Quotes

"McCaffrey documents the compelling struggle for Irish legal abortion, providing vivid ethnographic descriptions of both individual experiences and advocacy campaigns. Divided women's movements used the technology of abortion pills to transform both private access and public protest, as advocates, physicians, and politicians transformed a stigmatized and secretive act into a routinized procedure. This is an important account!" --Rayna Rapp, New York University

"McCaffrey's impressive ethnography invites readers into the indisputably creative and successful social movements in and beyond Ireland that strategized to provide access to abortion pills even when abortion was banned. The book offers a framework for seeing abortion pills not only as medical technologies, but also as symbols of the work of access and the work of protest." --Laury Oaks, University of California, Santa Barbara

"From the Contraceptive Train in 1971 to the Abortion Pill Train in 2014, Irish reproductive rights activists have worked tirelessly and bravely to expand access to these essential health services. Anthropologist Brenna McCaffrey's thoughtful and nuanced book traces the struggles and victories of the abortion pill networks and activists. Through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with activists, McCaffrey unravels how abortion pills transformed from "contraband" smuggled into Ireland into objects of intense political interest, eventually contributing to the historical expansion of abortion rights in Ireland. A highly recommended read." --Joanna Mishtal, Lehigh University

"Interesting investigation on the history of the abortion pill and how the battle fought by the movement for reproductive justice in Ireland over recent decades was influenced by - and responded to - changing abortion practices. Using lots of direct interviews with activists and service providers within that movement both north and south, differing perspectives towards accessing the new abortion pills in the absence of legislation are explored. This timely book captures the role played by the abortion pill in shaping abortion services in Ireland once legislation was eventually enacted in 2018." --Ursula Barry, University College Dublin

"McCaffrey provides a gripping account of how activists in Ireland mobilized new 'technologies of protest' to transform access to abortion. This timely book is essential for those navigating abortion restrictions in the U.S., revealing the power of grassroots organizing in the fight for reproductive rights and justice." --Kathleen Broussard, University of South Carolina

"Through rich ethnographic research, McCaffrey's Pills and Protest explores the crucial, multi-faceted and sometimes contentious role of medication abortion in the campaign for legal abortion in Ireland, unravelling timely and important lessons for pro-choice strategizing beyond Irish borders in a moment of global backlash to reproductive rights." --Aideen O'Shaughnessy, University of Lincoln

About the Author

Brenna McCaffrey is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at SUNY Geneseo. Her work on the politics of abortion in Ireland has been published in Sapiens, Feminist Anthropology and Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Dr. McCaffrey is active in many efforts to improve abortion access in the United States, including volunteering with the New York Abortion Access Fund, the Miscarriage & Abortion Hotline, and the Online Abortion Resource Squad.