The 8th Amendment, Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion, may be viewed as a prism through which shifting ideas about women and sexuality in Irish society can be understood. How did Ireland move from being the first country in the world to offer constitutional protection to the ‘unborn’, to a country that enthusiastically voted to support abortion as a legitimate choice in pregnancy at a time when, internationally, the tide appears to be shifting towards more restrictive abortion regimes? This article offers a comparative study of two referendum campaigns; the feminist-led Anti-Amendment Campaign that organised to oppose the introduction of the amendment in 1983; and Together for Yes, the 2018 campaign to remove the amendment. Focusing on these two campaigns will allow an exploration of how over the course of 35 years’ abortion moved from being a one dimensional ‘moral’ issue to a multi-dimensional political and social question that reflected changing attitudes to sexuality and the role of women in public life. This article examines the political compromises the campaigns made, highlighting the lessons that can be taken forward in order to achieve a more emancipatory discourse of reproductive agency both in Ireland and internationally.