This paper considers the ways in which discourses of abortion and disc
ourses of national identity were constructed and reproduced through th
e events of the X case in the Republic of Ireland in 1992. This case i
nvolved a state injunction against a 14-year-old rape victim and her p
arents, to prevent them from obtaining an abortion in Britain. By exam
ining the controversy the case gave rise to in the national press, I w
ill argue that the terms of abortion politics in Ireland shifted from
arguments based on rights to arguments centred on national identity, t
hrough the questions the X case raised about women's citizenship statu
s, and women's position in relation to the nation and the state. Disco
urses of national identity and discourses of abortion shifted away fro
m entrenched traditional positions, towards more liberal articulations
.