Faith voices resisting anti-abortion norms: Deconstructing and re-configuring transgression in Northern Ireland faith spaces

is known about how, in conservative societies, people of faith who support access to


Introduction
Abortion is one of the most common health interventions globally.The World Health Organisation (WHO, 2021) estimate that 60 % of all unwanted pregnancies end in an induced abortion.Whilst abortions carried out according to regulations are very safe, approximately 45 % are unsafe, resulting in maternal mortality and morbidity.In many settings where abortion is unsafe (and in some where it is safe), abortion is presented as a taboo subject, impacted by culture, religion and societal norms (Bloomer et al., 2017;Kumar et al., 2009).As Faye D. Ginsburg observes in her seminal ethnographic study of the communities surrounding abortion clinics in Fargo, USA, the cultural meaning assigned to abortion is not stagnant, noting that the passive position of clergy in the 19th century is in marked contrast to active roles observed in the 20th century, from both prochoice and anti-abortion positions (1998, p. 31).Ginsburg reminds us that reproduction "…is always given meaning and value and subject to change within a historically specific set of cultural conditions" (Ginsburg, 1998, p. 19).A growing body of literature has examined the positioning of abortion by those who have abortions (Beynon-Jones, 2017;Cockrill & Nack, 2013;Hoggart, 2017;Purcell et al., 2020), those who provide abortions (Carvajal et al., 2022;Kasstan & Unnithan, 2020;Maxwell et al., 2020) and wider society (Brysk & Yang, 2023;Fischer, 2019;Macleod & Hansjee, 2013).Underexplored within scholarship is how people of faith who support access to abortion, navigate faith spaces where the socially dominant meaning of abortion is taboo.This paper contributes new knowledge, examining how these individuals transgress spaces that assume anti-abortion values, through the development of theoretical understanding of transgression, applying a Foucauldian feminist framework.

Abortion, religion and power
Abortion has been present in societies for as long as pregnancy has been.For the larger part of history knowledge about abortion has been passed between women and treated as a common, if mostly secret, part of reproductive life.Legislative interference into abortion is a more modern phenomenon, reflective of changing perspectives and relationships towards the foetus, the control of women and pregnant people's bodies and the governance of medical procedures (Bloomer et al., 2018).In Western countries the control of abortion which has gone hand in hand with religious morality typically stems from Catholic theology and evangelical Protestantism.However, the current anti-abortion policy of the main Christian, western churches has not been consistent (Petchesky, 1986;Rose, 2007).In the sixteenth century, for instance, Pope Gregory XIV did not regard abortion as a mortal sin until the point of quickening, at which the woman felt the foetus moving (ensoulment).Protestant Evangelical churches were previously tolerant of abortion until the early 1970s (Rose, 2007).Elsewhere, within other faith traditions nuance is more visible than within the western Christian traditions.Within some Islamic schools of thought (mazhab) abortion is permitted under particular circumstances (Anshor, 2004, cited in Syarifatul, forthcoming).Similarly, within halacha (Jewish law) abortion is largely permitted (Schiff, 2002).However, in public discourse, in conservative societies, faith communities are assumed to be hostile to abortion.Indeed, similar assumptions are made by abortion providers, thus claims of transgression are not just in the public domain but in the provision of abortion itself (Kasstan & Unnithan, 2020).
The process of communicating power and knowledge and achieving normalisation of the values of those who hold power in societies has long been explored by scholars (Deutscher, 2010;Foucault, 1980;Herzog, 2018), alongside a growing body of literature on resisting such norms (Bloomer et al., 2017;Greene et al., 2017;Wolf, 2020).In this study we contribute to this body of work by exploring how those within groups transgress prevailing norms, through application of a Foucauldian feminist framework (Macleod & Durrheim, 2002).Focusing on people of faith in a conservative society who are prochoice, we address how dominant anti-abortion discourse is experienced and how these individuals subvert the dominant discourses.We reflect on what actually constitutes an act of transgression and to what end do participants transgress.We define persons of faith as any person who self-identifies with a faith community or spiritual practice.We define progressive positions on abortion as those that are supportive of access to abortion, and of women and pregnant people who have abortions.
Firstly, a consideration of the study setting.Northern Ireland is part of the UK, with most legislative powers devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, including housing, employment, education, health and the environment.The remaining powers are held by the UK government.Governance is operated though a model of consociationalism, introduced following a 30-year conflict between those who wish to remain as part of the UK (unionists/loyalists) and those who wish unification with the Republic of Ireland (nationalists/republicans) (Kennedy et al., 2016).The legacy of the conflict is a deeply divided society.The political landscape is dominated by entrenchment, stifling political development and has resulted in several suspensions of the Northern Ireland Assembly.These suspensions, lasting months to three years, have been replaced with direct rule from the UK government, with additional powers delegated to the UK Secretary of State (Pierson, 2022).
In legislative terms Northern Ireland's regulatory framework for abortion was in itself transgressive within the UK context both pre and post legislative change which occurred in 2019.Prior to the legal change, for the previous 50 years in Northern Ireland Sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA) and case law, permitted abortion only in limited circumstances such as when the life of the pregnant person was in danger or when their long term health and wellbeing was at risk (Bloomer et al., 2018).Elsewhere in the UK exceptions to the restrictions set out in the OAPA as the 1967 Abortion Act allowed for abortion under a wide range of circumstances.Sections 58 and 59 the OAPA were repealed by the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act in October 2019, by the UK government, during a period of suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly, resulting in abortion being decriminalised.This followed a lengthy activist campaign, legal challenges, an international inquiry by the United Nations Committee for Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an inquiry by the UK House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, and sustained efforts by Labour MP Stella Creasy (Aiken & Bloomer, 2019).Thus Northern Ireland currently has the most liberal legislative framework in the whole of the UK, transgressing the norms once more.However, implementation of abortion services has been hampered by an anti-abortion Minister for Health, and hostile resistance from one of the largest political partiesthe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).Paradoxically for a unionist party, the DUP sought to maintain the previous regulatory framework, despite it transgressing the positioning of abortion in the rest of the UK.
Northern Ireland is a conservative society, with gender policy underdeveloped and until recent times, characterised by the dominance of anti-abortion positions in political discourse.The leading Christian churches (Catholic, Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, and Methodist) have long been opposed to liberalisation of the law, and have lobbied against reform (Bloomer et al., 2018).On the eve of the introduction of decriminalisation of abortion law on 21st October 2019 those opposed to the new law used social media to circulate the hashtag #darkestdays to express their discontent.The hashtag received prominence amongst anti-abortion lobby groups and several leading faith groups.Faith voices that dominate public discourse, lobbying activities, media commentary, and official church pronunciations, are anti-abortion.Whilst US Christian evangelicals are not active in Northern Ireland, propagating of their anti-abortion norms are evidenced through anti-abortion lobby groups.
The Faith and Abortion study, part of a collaborative project with the authors and activist organisation Alliance for Choice, was designed to provide an evidence base to inform an intervention with faith leaders in Northern Ireland (Turtle & Bloomer, 2022).The collaboration was devised in recognition of a gap in knowledge of how prochoice people of faith engaged on the issue of abortion.This intervention sought to provide a safe space to discuss permissive, nuanced beliefs about abortion and explore how these individuals came to hold views that transgressed from the dominant religious discourse.Specifically, given the anti-abortion domination of public, political and faith spaces the Faith and Abortion study recognised the significance of creating safe space to explore transgressive positions, which if expressed elsewhere could have significant repercussions for participations, including ostracisation from their faith community, families and in some cases loss of their home and position as faith leader (Turtle, forthcoming).Utilising qualitative data from this study, we explore how prochoice people of faith engage with the issue of abortion, from a faith perspective, within a conservative society.We identify transgressions, resistance to anti-abortion norms and barriers to engagement.Throughout the following text we employ the term 'faith', as a collective term to represent a broad range of faith settings, and 'church' for more structured settings.The application of 'transgression' in this study is informed by the scholarship of Donnan and Magowan regarding transgressive sexual acts and practices (2009, pp.1-2); they advocated for the study of how "… moral boundaries are mapped in space, regulated and [observing that it] … reveals much about how social life is ordered and perceived".These observations can enhance cross-cultural comparisons and also be applied to both the self and to structures.

Foucauldian feminist framework
This paper builds on the scholarship of academics who have theorised the relationship between power, knowledge and social control from a feminist perspective.Specifically, we draw on the work of Foucauldian feminists in the global south and north to understand the complexity of concepts and processes surrounding the positioning of abortion in society.
As Deutscher (2010) observed, Foucault made only limited reference to feminism, as a counter-movement, in his theorising of power and knowledge (Foucault, 1980).Feminist scholars have thus taken up this task and provided their interpretations, constructing a Foucauldian F. Bloomer et al. feminist framework.Macleod and Durrheim (2002) posited that the interconnectedness of micro and macro-levels of power analysis can be applied to investigate the complexity of the oppressive, gendered relations of power that take on diverse forms in society, allowing for identification and analysis of resistance to oppression, and examination of the power/knowledge nexus.Specifically, when considering abortion, it is evident that the 'power dynamics that underline abortion are part of an ideological struggle about the meaning of family, motherhood and sexuality' (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 628), with ideology regulated through medical, economic and political structures (Foucault, 1977).As observed by Donnan and Magowan (2009), transgression, applied to inverting structures in society, presents a challenge to the distribution of power, allowing for examination of how transformation can occur.
The interweaving of discursive formations and power relations (Macleod & Hansjee, 2013) is achieved as discourse links knowledge and power (Foucault, 1977).The intersection of a range of discourses constitutes the apparatus of the state, including the political, judicial, disciplinary, and sexual (Vivaldi, 2020, p. 107).In Northern Ireland, the apparatus of the state incorporates the main churches who reproduce and reinforce the hegemonic positioning of the state on abortion (Bloomer et al., 2017).
Addressing the social production of abortion stigma, Love (2021) utilises a Foucauldian argument that silence is 'an integral part of the strategies that underlie and permeate discourse' (Foucault, 1978, 27).The repetition of dominant and stigmatised anti-abortion norms leads both to the silencing of prochoice voices and to the stigmatization of women and pregnant people who have abortions (Bloomer et al., 2017).The repeated reference by politicians, legal and church leaders, that the majority of the population hold anti-abortion viewsdespite the ample evidence otherwise (Bloomer et al., 2018) is an exemplar of cultural intimidation (Fegan & Rebouche, 2003).We define cultural intimidation as the replication of apparently dominant norms, by the apparatus of the state, to quash transgressional views.Macleod and Durrheim (2002) stress the centrality of such hierarchical observations and normalising judgements, themselves embedded in dominant discourses concerning the nature of femininity and womanhood.Surveillance and the normalising gaze regulate people's behaviour, with regulation becoming self-regulation as the person subjects themselves to an internalised surveillance (see also Kumar et al., 2009;Love, 2021): There is no need for arms, physical violence, material constraints.Just a gaze.An inspecting gaze, a gaze which each individual under its weight will end up interiorising to the point that he (sic) is his own overseer, each individual thus exercising surveillance over, and against himself.(Foucault, 1980, p. 155) In Foucauldian terms, for Macleod and Durrheim (2002, p. 55) 'resistance [of dominant norms] can take the form of reverse or subjugated discourses or practices subverting hegemonic discourses and practices'.Bloomer et al. (2017) later reaffirmed that there is no single locus of resistance to hegemonic discourses, highlighting the demand for feminist political practice to form alliances across civil society, including faith groups, to support those who transgress.
The production of dialogical spaces in which women can reflect on, and voice their experiences, has been identified (Beynon-Jones, 2017) as a key step towards resisting oppressive norms regarding reproduction and abortion, and generating counter-hegemonic discourse.Specifically in relation to feminist community education, Bloomer et al., suggest that: …in Foucauldian terms, these interventions provide the possibility of highlighting the power/knowledge relations underpinning these norms and for the emergence of reverse or subjugated discourses.
(2017, p. 719) Language and discourse are thus observed as central when social meanings are constructed, reinforced, and challenged (Wilkinson, 2021).Language is positioned as a form of social action, reaffirming the capacity to construct untroubled/non-stigmatised identities, contingent of the context in which talk takes place.As observed by Alcoff and Gray (1993, p. 263) in relation to survivor discourse, Foucault's analysis offers a framing to reflect upon and to evaluate the dynamics of speaking out as a political tactic, emphasizing too that whilst multiple discourses may exist at any point in time, a hierarchy in these exists, with as demonstrated in this study, consequences occurring for those that resist the dominant norms.
A Foucauldian feminist framework, comprising appraisal of how the power/knowledge nexus, surveillance and self-regulation are experienced and how reverse discourse seeks to subvert hegemonic discourses, offers a useful lens to explore resistance to hostility to abortion within faith communities.The resulting positionality of those who transgress oppressive settings and generate counter-hegemonic discourse, are largely unexplored in the feminist Foucauldian literature.We propose that these individuals experience a belonging-paradox, caught between settings, each with norms that are aspired to/believed in.We employ the term 'belonging paradox', defined as a state wherein individuals experience feelings of simultaneous inclusion and exclusion, and where a sense of belonging (Walton & Cohen, 2007) is at odds with, or undermined by, broader group dynamics within a faith group or church.

Methods
In this study we adopt a feminist position, focusing on participants' lived experience and their views, and acknowledging the power differential between researcher and participant (Hesse-Biber, 2013).The methodology comprised a preliminary survey followed by online asynchronous, text-based, focus groups.The focus group data are reported here.Online asynchronous focus groups were chosen as the most suitable method of data collection as they allow participants to contribute at a time and location convenient to them (Hesse-Biber & Griffin, 2013).The format allows for relative anonymity (MacNamara et al., 2021), particularly important when considering the taboo nature of being prochoice within a faith community in a conservative society.The textbased nature of online asynchronous focus groups promotes multilayered engagement, it facilitates scrolling back to answer questions, contributing to issues raised by other participants, and reflecting on participants' own views, encouraging deeper topic engagement.There are however disadvantages; the format requires internet access and basic IT knowledge to both navigate the platform and participate in the discussion (Fox et al., 2007).Distress or disengagement can be harder to identify, though non-verbal cues, including the use of symbols and various textual methods, can minimise these issues (MacNamara et al., 2021).Since the study was conducted (January, 2020), the use of online data collection methods has grown considerably in social sciences as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions (Liegghio & Caragata, 2021).As Howlett (2022) reminds us, the use of technology has allowed for completion of studies at significant temporal and spatial distances between the researcher and participants, although challenges exist for the researcher in being able to immerse themselves in the research site.
The absence of prochoice faith organisations in the public domain, combined with the prevalent silencing of prochoice faith perspectives, presented a challenge for the research team in identifying the target population for the study.A multi-mode purposive sampling approach was employed to recruit participants (Bryman, 2016).Firstly, information about the study was sent to faith groups known to have liberal views on other social issues including LGBTQ+ inclusion, based on public statements they had made.Utilising a database held by partner organisation, Alliance for Choice, the largest prochoice activist organisation in Northern Ireland, five faith groups, all of whom were of a Christian denomination, were asked to circulate, to their members an invitation to take part in the Secondly, faith leaders known to the research team through previous engagement, were asked to circulate information on the study (n = 3), all of these were from a Christian denomination.Finally, Alliance for Choice circulated study information to their supporter mailing list (n = 3000).In total 75 individuals completed the survey which gathered general views on abortion and the importance of faith.Those who completed the survey were invited to participate in a focus group to explore their views on faith and abortion.
The criteria for inclusion in focus groups were that participants were: adults (aged 18+); persons of faith (who self-identified as adhering to a religious tradition, faith, or doctrine); living in Northern Ireland; had completed the survey; and held prochoice views (verified through responses to survey questions).Consequently 26 participants were allocated within one of three focus groups (though five of these made no contribution) (findings from a fourth focus group comprising those with anti-abortion views will be the subject of a future publication).A range of faith backgrounds were identified, with the majority from mainstream Catholic and Protestant churches; other faiths or traditions included Quaker, Ageless Wisdom, Bahá'í and Paganism.All bar the latter four and one of the Protestant churches belonged to faith groups whose policy on abortion was restrictive or completely hostile.
Detailed guidelines were provided to focus group participants to establish rules for interaction.The focus groups ran for three weeks in January 2020, on the Discourse platform which provided enhanced security and functionality suited to the study.Authors FB and NM of this paper moderated the discussions.Participants were encouraged to respond to questions and to discuss responses with other participants.Discussions centred on six key areas: the importance of religion in the participant's life; views on abortion and what informed that view; how their denomination/church/faith group deals with abortion; how their faith leader deals with abortion; and how faith groups should approach abortion.
A reflective thematic analysis was conducted on the focus group transcripts (Braun & Clarke, 2021).This process involves 'immersion in the data, reading, reflecting, questioning, imagining, wondering, writing, retreating, returning' (Braun & Clarke, 2021, 332).The research team then applied the Foucauldian feminist framework.Authors FB and SB led on analysis, and frequent meetings with author NM enabled teasing out of rich, nuanced perspectives on the data.These meetings also served as opportunities to reflect on assumptions and interpretations within the research team (Hogan et al., 2021).Each participant was provided with a unique code to identify their focus group and participant number (e.g.FG1P1).Ethical approval for the study was provided by the lead author's institutional Research Ethics Committee.
As with any qualitative research programme, there are a number of methodological constraints which need to be acknowledged, not least in terms of validity and replicability.The sampling procedure, drawing participants from an earlier survey, necessarily limits any inferences that can be made to a wider population.Additionally, operationalising a series of asynchronous on-line focus groups limited access to the research programme to those with a reasonable degree of IT literacy.

Results
In this section we present the findings from the analysis of the focus group transcripts.We illustrate and delineate specific forms of transgression undertaken by participants which enabled, to varying extents, a rejection of dominant discourse, and the forms of regulation and surveillance operating within faith communities which limit opportunities to challenge faith norms.For participants, transgression took various forms.These included a redefinition of faith, as a rejection of absolutes and a focus on building a relationship with God directly, which allowed for respect for people and their decisions.For some it involved resisting faith communities perceived as oppressive, by rejecting one church and a move to an alternative.Others actively sought out spaces which avoided or ameliorated tensions between individual views and faith norms with relative freedom from the normalising gaze.Alternately, transgression led to a rejection of faith norms and identification with the norms of the prochoice movement, prochoice activism, and the politics of resistance.This transgression allowed for the development of spaces wherein progressive social views were nourished and supported, where reverse discourses flourished.The regulatory and hegemonic power of churches, in a number of forms, was also explored including how the church silenced dissonant discourse; the dissonance between church goers and 'the pulpit' and church leaderships; and the operation of dominant church discourses, both within faith spaces and in the public arena.This dissonance results in the silencing and concealment of progressive views, compelling forms of self-regulation in faith communities.Finally, we also observed instances of faith communities wherein prochoice views were welcomed.

The intersections between abortion, faith and religion
Participants unsurprisingly, identified religion as an important component of their life.Many however differentiated between faith and organised religion, highlighting the primacy of faith in their everyday life as opposed to life within a formal faith environment.This differentiation begins to map the power dynamics of the ideological struggle at the individual level (Kumar et al., 2009), wherein abortion is the focus of individual transgression in the form of contestation within organised religion.This participant, from a church where the leader was extremely hostile to abortion, and whose parent was a faith leader, illustrates diminishing church dominance over time: As I grew older, I began to feel…distant from 'organised' religion per se, I think primarily because my understanding … interpretation of my religion seemed to be so different to other people in my church, namely the elders in it.I know that the church of my childhood takes a very different approach from me on different issues. (FG1P7) Individuals focused more on an individual relationship with God and on the values of love and compassion, rather than on formal relationships within organised religion.In doing so they transgressed boundaries of church policy, and the authoritative voice that dominated church space.
All of us wither without love and kindness.I don't think that my denomination's views on abortion are kind, compassionate or in any way practical. (FG1P9) Here tension emerged between faith and progressive social values, with participants reporting that their belief in religious doctrine/dogma was tested as their social and political awareness developed to become more liberal, to be open-minded.Sites where churches exercised power over individuals became contested ideological terrain, in which the impulse to self-regulate was either acceded to, or rejected and norms transgressed.At the individual level, the ideological struggle for some individuals generated alternative discourses built around love and caring, within a broader reflexive religious discourse, rather than outright rejection of church hegemony.
Transgression within churches was not always possible, or practical.Some participants reported moving between churches following negative experiences.For participants, faith in, and their relationship with, God was a principal component of their life.Reported tension between individual faith and formal faith communities may well reflect the broader trends in Northern Ireland, both the decline of organised religion and overall societal religiosity, though notably this is at a much slower rate than the rest of the UK (Ganiel & Morris, 2021).
I have been brought up in a different faith to the one I now prescribe to … and despite moving from one belief system to another I have always (sic) guided by the importance of respect and compassion. (FG3P23) I often search for a church that isn't so antithesis to my own morals but haven't as yet been able to find one in NI. (FG1P6) Individual discomfort within formal faith environments speaks to problematising morally-laden anti-abortion education identified by Bloomer et al. (2017), wherein religious ethos, norms and teachings are either reinforced or resisted by individuals.Primarily, the views outlined here reaffirm the notion that participants self-regulate, they can be prochoice and remain within a faith community, however tangentially, a position underscored by tensions but not to the extent where 'prochoice and religious' is an unworkable contradiction.
One thing the church/faith has taught me is that I'm not a person of absolutes…I usually felt there was a gray area of understanding that I belonged in.Abortion became one of those issues for me.The idea of life being sacred and valued makes sense … Women find themselves in so many difficult circumstances where their choices are limited.Abortion shouldn't be another choice that gets taken away. (FG1P8) Growing up FG1P8 had frequently rejected 'what was coming from the pulpit', though was appreciative of the sense of community in the church, and still occasionally attends church.
Participants' views on abortion, and what informed their views, further highlighted, in Foucauldian terms, the power/knowledge relations underpinning norms, problematising the emergence of currently transgressive and subjugated discourses.Here the tensions between individual views and faith norms are central, with participants delineating the contradictions between norms of religious patriarchy and lived experience.Though many struggled with the contradictions between personal and church-based faith almost all articulated a very clear rationale on the abortion question.For example, FG3P25 rejected the 'aggressively pro-life position' of their church, positioning herself as 'feminist and vocal' on the issue of abortion within her church, a position informed by university education and working within the NHS.Whilst there was evidence that some individuals construct relatively untroubled identities integrating feminist views and organised religious discourse it remained unclear to what extent participants were able to do this.For some participants abortion was, above all, a medical treatment, not primarily a moral or ethical phenomena, wherein faith groups and churches should provide help and support.However, concerns were identified: … in an ideal world, faith-based organisations would provide practical and emotional support to women making pregnancy-related choices.I think it would be almost impossible to ensure this support was unbiased though, and that would make me very wary of this happening in practice. (FG1P6) The scepticism expressed by some on whether faith groups were likely to provide non-biased help was in contrast with others who simply rejected the 'bitter pro-life Christians' (FG2P16) narrative, reemphasizing love and compassion for those needing support.This rigid position ascribed to anti-abortion Christians contributed to the construction of participants troubled identities, of being half in half out of the church.
The majority of participants underscored a transgressive position on abortion with identifiable positions within the broader prochoice movement: 'trust women', 'reproductive justice', a 'woman's right to choose', 'prochoice', and 'as early as possible, as late as necessary'.
I feel it is time for society to trust women to do with their bodies as they feel fit, no one else has the right to force others to do what they perceive is best for them.Surely it is a basic human right. (FG1P2) I have come across reproductive justice before, and it's definitely how I would view abortion.Just thinking about my own faith community, I don't think it would be embraced.(FG2P16) For some participants, individual lived experience informed the development of counter-politics and resistance.One individual selfdescribed as 'feminist (as well as a Christian)' (FG1P2), challenging and synthesising the norms around both identities.This individual identified studying religion in higher education as key in providing the intellectual space to think critically about religiosity, a position here presented as prochoice aligned with broader feminist views, a nascent form of subverting hegemonic discourse and practice (Macleod & Durrheim, 2002).This resonated with Bloomer et al. (2017), who noted the potential for rehabilitating faith positions.Participant FG1P2 further noted the impact of lived experience: … going through a date rape when I was younger has no doubt also added to my views on abortion…in cases such as this, abortion should be freely available.Having suffered such trauma, no girl or woman should be forced to go through yet more trauma and be forced to carry a foetus against her will.
Others highlighted direct abortion experiences as important formative aspects of their values.One individual described herself as being overwhelmed by guilt following an abortion, which she self-ascribed to stigma arising from years of church indoctrination.The overall experience produced a strident form of "Feminism and Catholicism… I see myself as a 'maverick Catholic' now" (FG1P9).The construction of a transgressive 'Maverick Catholic' identity is instructive viewed within Purcell's (2015) guidance of the requirement to assess the language that women employ to illustrate their experiences, to construct social meaninghere seen as developing new social meanings that challenge from within, rather than outright rejecting church orthodoxy (Wilkinson, 2021).Another who travelled to England for an abortion when aged 18 noted that 'I was a young child with no sex education because of the strict teaching of my school.Had I have been educated properly I would not have been in this situation' (FG2P15).Direct abortion experiences were largely reported as negative, resulting in isolation and stigma.Though the social production of stigma can be overwhelming (Love, 2021), evidence suggested that for some participants stigma was resisted and rejected (Hoggart, 2017), and countered with alternative conceptions that began to normalise abortion (Baird & Millar, 2019;Purcell et al., 2020).

Church power and cultural intimidation
On church governmentality, the way in which churches exercise power over individuals, within the power/knowledge nexus of discursive and social practices around abortion, some participants reported a degree of flexibility on abortion within their faith spaces.A more accommodating form of governmentality displaces the need for individual transgression.For a Bahá'í participant, final decisions were a matter for individuals and their medical advisors.One participant reported that in the Irish Methodist church abortion may be considered as a last resort (n.b. the President of the church at the time was stridently anti-abortion).Quakers and the United Reform Churches were characterised as largely prochoice.FG1P4 explained how the teaching in her church, Ageless Wisdom, was based on 'the non-judgemental, unconditional love of God -hence it is openly discussed without judgement, condemnation or critique and accepted as a woman's right to determine if and when she has children'.
F. Bloomer et al.Most participants characterised their as anti-abortion, with dissonant views often regulated and silenced.Acts of individual transgression were reported, indicating that the regulatory control of churches could be challenged, or even rejected.FG2P13 reported that her church had been active on social media in opposition to Westminster legislating on abortion (#darkestdays), but when a guest speaker addressed the congregation on opposing new legislation, a number of the congregation walked out in opposition, whilst others openly criticised the minister.She suggests that 'maybe the tides are slowly turning [but] abortion is a taboo subject and people wouldn't speak about it openly … it is more acceptable to be anti-choice' (FG2P13).The church, positioned as a site of contestation, offers collective opportunities to transgress, to reverse church hegemony, to challenge the optics of power, subjugating church discourse and practice (Macleod & Durrheim, 2002).Several participants referenced a shift in the moral and ethical outlooks of people within the church, wherein individuals looked to their own moral compass on a range of issues including abortion, sex education, contraception and religious life, rather than church guidance.This illustrates the interweaving of alternative discursive formations and power (Macleod & Hansjee, 2013), at individual and family level, in which the proliferation of new and transgressive discourses has the potential to generate alternative realities and conceptions normalising abortion (Baird & Millar, 2019) for people of faith.One participant reflected on the influence of her grandmother's views within a church with established, hostile anti-abortion views: I have always been prochoice since the first time I encountered the idea.One of the most strident prochoice voices in my life has been my Free Presbyterian grandmother.She's seen too many women die because of pregnancy or childbirth (and nearly did herself), and too many unloved children and ruined lives to be anything other. (FG1P5) Non-normative conceptions of abortion are not new.People of faith have always been able to arrive at and adhere to counter hegemonic positions, whether or not these views are shared in faith settings or in wider environs (Bloomer et al., 2018).However, there was dissonance between church positions delivered from the pulpit, and more liberal parishioner positions.As FG1P9 explains, attending a convent school and being brought up in the Catholic church had a lasting impact on her sense of faith, she no longer regarded herself as a practicing Catholic.
… the vast majority of Catholics are looking to their own consciences as opposed to consulting the parish priest about major issues such as birth control, and their right to choose.So privately at least, having no intermediary between God and themselves, they are not so far from their Protestant brothers and sisters in their thinking!If that makes them failed, imperfect or hypocritical Catholics, so be it.The alternative is … leave the church. (FG1P9) The dominant anti-abortion hegemony, fundamental to the dissonance experienced by participants, with church and societal silence around abortion, and 'cultural intimidation' reaffirming that society is collectively anti-abortion, (Fegan & Rebouche, 2003), is replicated in home life.As one participant noted, "they preach about a god of love and compassion who forgives 'his children' yet they make women second class citizens" (FG2P15).For FG3P3 the lack of flexibility in the Catholic church's anti-abortion discourse, led to self-regulation and silencing within the family unit on social issues: My parents were very devout Catholics.They refused to even hear an alternative view on abortion even in cases of rape or fatal foetal abnormality.There were a lot of things that led to me leaving that faith behind but being unable to challenge a belief without being castigated was a big one for me! (FG3P24) Experiences of silencing and concealment (Beynon-Jones, 2017;Foucault, 1978) pervaded participant experiences, illustrating that dominant church discourses continue to reproduce and reinforce a carefully regulated reality for parishioners.For FG3P23 the inflexibility of the Catholic church meant she stopped attending services, before deciding to change churches.In the Church of Ireland one participant suggested that abortion was an 'unspoken issue, with a bit of compassionate understanding under some circumstances' (FG1P8), for another church culture was defined by 'hypocrisy and good appearances' (FG1P9).The hostile, inflexible position on abortion effectively silenced potential transgression in congregations, with many participants opting to keep their views private, effectively self-regulating, intensifying the experience of dissonance: The collective assumption is that "the tribe" is obviously against abortion…though more people than we realise would privately dissent from this position and would be more open to a prochoice perspective in [some] circumstances.As for faith leaders … they just won't go there, at least not publicly. (FG1P1) FG2P18 highlighted the disconnect between Presbyterian church leadership promoting the #darkestdays on social media in opposition to the decriminalisation of abortion, and her experience of more liberal views within congregations.Media campaigns supported by churches were experienced by participants as cultural intimidation (Fegan & Rebouche, 2003), so 'of course the end result … is that the people who could add their voices to effect change are silenced and the hierarchy carries on as before' (FG1P9).Some participants baulked at speaking out given the church's effort to silence, and have actively engaged with the abortion debate outside church, a clear demarcation that potential transgression was tightly regulated within the church.
There wouldn't be much talk about abortion within my church.Friends, family and some work colleagues know my views, but I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel about discussing [abortion] with … church members. (FG1P2) Across most faith communities, the common thread was the disconnect between members of the congregation, some of whom are more liberal on a range of social issues including abortion, and the strict doctrinaire stance taken by church leaders, particularly in the public arena.As to how faith leaders should engage with this issue of abortion, the most consistent view was that religious institutions should disengage from the public policy arena.Participants advocated that abortion to be treated as a reproductive health issue by church leaders, a move away from the current preeminent position of churches in the construction of the abortion dispositif in which a 'tangle of lines and power' cohabit (Vivaldi, 2020), whereby their lobbying was from an anti-abortion position.There was little hope that this might happen.This view was encapsulated thus: My denomination is quite strict in general, being an evangelical denomination (so think the "hellfire and brimstone" line!).The standard teaching in relation to abortion is that it is murder and wrong, as it is taking the life of a child/one of God's children and that it is something not to be thought of or discussed. (FG1P7) This participant, whose father is a pastor, reported how her transgression, her individual resistance to dominant ant-abortion church narratives, has been undermined through overt forms of coercion, exemplifying the inspecting gaze (Macleod & Durrheim, 2002)  (FG1P7) many participants, prochoice activism offered the most appropriate avenue to express and develop their transgressive position, with the majority experiencing a powerful sense of dislocation from their church.Many confirmed the belonging-paradox experience of being semi-detached from their church, of sitting at the edge of the faith community. (FG1P8) Many are like me, "half in and half out" of the church … for others … this is the point at which they leave.So of course the end result of that is that the people who could add their voices to effect change are silenced and the hierarchy carries on as before. (FG1P9) In one notable exception a participant's prochoice activism had not been hindered, as her faith group -Ageless Wisdom -was supportive of her stance.Having been brought up in a conservative church, she moved to another which welcomed judgement-free discussions on abortion.
What motivates me to speak out about abortion is my deep love of God and a desire to see women empowered and free from the clutches of poisonous and false religious dogma/teachings based on the patriarchal judgement of man that leaves them feeling guilty and ashamed, when they could be … empowered, know they are deeply loved no matter what choice they made or the reason they made that choice … I was … limited by the imposed religious teachings of my upbringing … and the shame it engendered.I am now not limited. (FG1P4) Participant FG1P4 noted however that this viewpoint was uncommon, and that the patriarchal and fundamentalist views labelling people 'sinners…engendering guilt and shame', needed to be overcome.The use of shame, in this context aligns with what Fischer (2019, p. 33) describes as 'the intrinsic device of the shame experiencehiding -to issue in the physical excising of women's bodies'.
Finally, participants also welcomed the opportunity to discuss their views in a safe environment, FG2P13 for example was 'really pleased to be taking part in this forum and know that there are other people with similar views to me.I can feel quite isolated in my community about my views on abortion'.

Discussion
This paper began by situating Northern Ireland, within the wider UK context, as having an exemplar transgressive liberal regulatory framework for abortion at the macro level, yet at the micro level, an opposing transgression was observed with religious and political anti-abortion norms placing significant constraints on access to abortion services and on the work of addressing processes of stigmatization.The examination of micro levels within faith communities illuminates how people of faith experience transgression relating to the positioning of abortion in faith spaces.
The application of a Foucauldian feminist framework (Macleod & Durrheim, 2002) has identified the regulation of views on abortion (Vivaldi, 2020).Specifically, regulatory practices identified have been used to minimise overt transgression, to control anti-abortion positioning within churches, either directly from the pulpit or via indirect methods, including the use of social media, when legislation decriminalising abortion was introduced.Faith leaders held control of abortion discourse to varying degrees of success.Participants observed that whilst anti-abortion messaging was hostile and explicit in some instances, elsewhere it was left unspoken, with assumptions made within faith communities that faith leaders were anti-abortion.Some participants spoke of a sense that many in their faith group were prochoice, and that their faith leaders were out of touch.Forms of surveillance, regulation and self-regulation prevented, or at least restricted opportunities to speak out, or to promote dissenting positions (Foucault, 1977;Macleod & Durrheim, 2002).Where regulation is explicit, the rigid positioning of the church resulted in transgressiona partial, or in some instances a complete separation from the church.
We observed a belonging-paradox wherein many participants are uncomfortable in hardline churches, yet also want to remain in involved with church spaces.They struggle with transgression, trying to resolve the dilemma of accommodating their prochoice positionality within formal church structures, within the patriarchal history of theology.We would argue that this is because both identities matter to people.Individuals are faced with assessing faith spaces, determining who they can speak to on the topic, when and to what extent.Further research is warranted on delineating these boundaries.In the 'how' of the control of prochoice voices it was evident that instances of cultural intimidation (Fegan & Rebouche, 2003) occurred, inhibiting transgression, illustrated in the silencing of prochoice members on the one hand, alongside the amplification of those who are anti-abortion.Some were able to resolve this quandary by moving between churches, others by aligning with prochoice activism, making visible their transgression, their resistance to anti-abortion norms.Many cannot speak out in faith spaces and found the focus group to be a welcoming safe space to discuss their views.The dominant theme arising here is the surveilling, regulating and silencing (Bloomer et al., 2017;Foucault, 1980) of emerging transgressive views within the hegemonic position of individual churches, the constant reinforcement of anti-abortion norms by faith leaders in the public forum, and more broadly in political and social environments.The weight of transgression is heavy for many participants.
The belonging-paradox contrasted starkly with those participants in more supportive faith groups, who elaborated on how this provided safe, welcoming and non-judgmental spaces.In supportive faith groups, knowledge and power about abortion, about the discourse surrounding abortion were not repressive (Macleod & Hansjee, 2013), rather these environments provided opportunities for acceptance, compassion and love regarding abortion and those who need abortions, from nonjudgmental standpoints.Within the Northern Irish context, individuals who transgress, or who are prevented from transgressing within regulatory faith spaces and communities, are left with a belonging-paradox.At the broader level, the position of Northern Ireland as transgressive within the UK, with contrasting positionings on abortion at macro and micro levels places, delineates a unique position.Lessons to be drawn from this context necessarily should be viewed with that cautionary caveat in mind.

Conclusion
The analysis presented here builds on themes identified by Bloomer et al. (2017).Participants problematised the morally-laden anti-abortion instruction they experienced in education, and in faith spaces.The concept of transgression (Donnan & Magowan, 2009) was applied to the study, enabling examination how moral boundaries are formed, regulated and what these reveal about how life in churches and faith groups is ordered and perceived.For many people, progressive views which transgress the anti-abortion norms of churches, are a consequence of lived experience and material conditions, rather than derived from the narrow doctrines promulgated in pulpits.In relation to the rehabilitation of religious discourse within faith environments, the evidence presented is not conclusive.
This research raises a number of implications and opportunities for faith groups to engage on the issue of abortion, both within and outside faith communities.In moving forward, it is evident that safe spaces for those who feel isolated due to their transgressive prochoice views, and for those unsure of their position, are essential.The intervention with faith leaders started by this research project and resulting in the development of a new organisation Faith Voices for Reproductive Justice provides an opportune pathway to achieve this.Since the research was completed, the new has platformed liberal religious narratives on abortion, and has undertaken public awareness raising, seminars, conferences, engagements with political actors and teaching in one of the region's only seminaries (Turtle & Bloomer, 2022).An ongoing study which expands on the approach in NI and internationally will be published in 2024.Both the research and the intervention project illustrate the potential for transgression and social change in stubborn social issues that are so profoundly linked to equity.In so doing the work demonstrates that change is possible against a seemingly unsurmountable wall of hostility and that collaboration between academics, activists and unlikely allies of faith groups can create cracks in the façade.
of church members.'I have had people follow me on social media and notice the [prochoice] rallies I attend … who have then notified my parents to ask them if they were aware of what I was doing and what I supported'F.Bloomer et al.