Witnessing legal sources of time for better abortion care

Moves to time-limited abortion laws have generated novel research questions as pregnant people are timed out of lawful access. Some of these questions were articulated during the successful 2018 campaign to legalise abortion in Ireland and repeal the ‘right to life of the unborn’ in Article 40 3 3 of the Constitution, otherwise known as the Eighth Amendment. Feminist and civil society campaigners asked how would the time in the new criteria for lawful abortion be counted? If the starting point of the 12-week time limit was the last menstrual period (LMP) and a moment of cyclical time, how would the ending point of the time limit accommodate rhythms and overlaps, including those of an abortion timeline? I respond to this everyday witnessing of legal problems by considering the different ways in which legal time runs. Working with different aspects of legal method, such as statutory interpretation, administrative rules, legal determinants of health, and standards of proof for evidence, I source four kinds of legal time: calendared, interruptible, health-determining and provable. I show how these different sources of legal time could be useful for improving legal standards of abortion care under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Witnessing doctrinal legal methods openly in this way contributes to critical socio-legal methodologies by working the knowledge that laws hold, including laws that have emerged through significant social struggle.