Pierson Claire, Bloomer Fiona
Research associate in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Department of Health, Psychology and Social Care at Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England.
Lecturer in social policy at the Institute for Research in Social Sciences, School of Criminology, Politics and Social Policy, at Ulster University, Jordanstown, Northern Ireland.
Health Hum Rights. 2017 Jun;19(1):173-186.
How abortion is dealt with in law and policy is shaped through the multiple political and societal discourses on the issue within a particular society. Debate on abortion is constantly in flux, with progressive and regressive movements witnessed globally. This paper examines the translation of human rights norms into discourses on abortion in Northern Ireland, a region where abortion is highly restricted, with extensive contemporary public debate into potential liberalization of abortion law. This paper emanates from research examining political debates on abortion in Northern Ireland and contrasts findings with recent civil society developments, identifying competing narratives of human rights with regard to abortion at the macro- and micro-political level. The paper identifies the complexities of using human rights as a lobbying tool, and questions the utility of rights-based arguments in furthering abortion law reform. The paper concludes that a legalistic rights-based approach may have limited efficacy in creating a more nuanced debate and perspective on abortion in Northern Ireland but that it has particular resonance in arguing for limited reform in extreme cases.
法律和政策如何处理堕胎问题，是由特定社会中围绕该问题的多种政治和社会话语所塑造的。关于堕胎的辩论一直在变化，全球范围内都有进步和倒退的趋势。本文考察了人权规范在北爱尔兰堕胎话语中的转化情况，在北爱尔兰这个地区，堕胎受到高度限制，同时当下也有关于堕胎法潜在自由化的广泛公开辩论。本文源自对北爱尔兰堕胎政治辩论的研究，并将研究结果与近期民间社会的发展进行对比，在宏观和微观政治层面识别出关于堕胎的相互竞争的人权叙事。本文指出了将人权作为游说工具的复杂性，并质疑基于权利的论点在推进堕胎法改革方面的效用。本文的结论是，基于法律的权利方法在为北爱尔兰堕胎问题创造更细致入微的辩论和观点方面可能效果有限，但在极端情况下主张有限改革方面却有特别的影响力。
