More than committed providers: Healthcare providers, practice learning and building abortion services in Ireland

Under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, a range of abortion care pathways have been introduced in the Republic of Ireland since 2019. The new abortion services were intended to transform the Republic of Ireland from a hyper restrictive to a liberal abortion regime. Healthcare providers, committed to making abortion care a reality in Ireland, were central to establishing and implementing abortion services. Literature on the role of health providers during this implementation period has underscored this ‘committed provider’ subjectivity. Here we wish to draw attention to another role they played. Applying Ahmed's writing on diversity work as a phenomenological practice, the article positions healthcare providers as ‘workers and knowledge creators who have generated new knowledge about walls in practice. Reinterrogating qualitative findings included in the Report of the Independent Review of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act – the O'Shea Review – and providers' study in 2023 from an original, sociologically-informed perspective, this article outlines what understandings of impediments to abortion in a post-liberalisation moment have been generated by the experience of implementation and provision. Through this discussion, the article shows how providers are not just instrumental in implementation but also, through their reflections and accounts, in generating insights to ensure the on-going improvement of abortion services. Through this analysis, the article develops an innovative interpretation of health care providers role and experiences after abortion access is liberalised.