Dr Fiona Bloomer

Overview

Fiona Bloomer is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences, at Ulster University, UK. She is an international expert on abortion policy, publishing extensively on this topic, including as lead author of the critically acclaimed book, Reimagining Global Abortion Politics.

Dr Bloomer’s research played a key role in informing the campaign to change the abortion law in Northern Ireland, where she worked closely with the activist organisation Alliance for Choice. She was called as an expert witness to three inquiries on abortion in Northern Ireland, hosted by The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; the UK Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee, and British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

Fiona is co-editor of a forthcoming two-volume book, published by Bloomsbury, which examines how decriminalisation of abortion was achieved in Northern Ireland. Each chapter is authored by an individual or collection of individuals who were directly involved in the decades-long battle to achieve historic legal change.

Since decriminalisation of abortion was achieved she has provided research advice to NIACT (the Northern Ireland Abortion and Contraception Taskgroup) a multi-disciplinary professional group that provides guidance on the provision of abortion services.

In 2021 Fiona was awarded a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship to explore the issue of faith and abortion and to answer the question, whose morality? She is co-editor of a forthcoming book, that examines how liberal faith organisations position abortion. Authors examine Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and inter-faith perspectives from countries around the world – Argentina, Malawi, Malaysia, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Sweden.

Fiona has established research partnerships globally including most recently an innovative project, with Alliance for Choice, which examines radical abortion care in Kenya and Zambia.

She is regularly called on to provide expert opinion on abortion policy by local, national and international media.

View a list of Fiona's publications