Maria Steen

Maria Steen (née Davin) is an Irish conservative campaigner. A qualified architect and barrister, she is a member of the Iona Institute. She campaigned against referendums on same-sex marriage and abortion in Ireland in the mid-to-late 2010s and opposed the referendums on Family and Care in 2024.

Personal life

The daughter of prominent Dublin estate agent Seán Davin, she is a niece of politician Joan Freeman—a former senator who contested the 2018 Irish presidential election—as well as barrister and television presenter Theresa Lowe. She graduated in 1999 with a degree in architecture from University College Dublin and worked as an architect with a leading firm for a number of years. She has been married to Neil Steen, a senior counsel, since May 2006. They have five children, who are home-schooled. She is a qualified barrister, but has not practiced since the birth of her children. She is a qualified AMI Montessori teacher. She has written for ''The Irish Catholic''.

Anti-abortion campaigning

She opposed the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, legislation proposed after the judgment of the ECHR in ''A, B and C v Ireland'' (2010). In line with the judgment of the Supreme Court of Ireland in the X Case (1992), this permitted abortion where there was a risk to a woman's life from suicide; Steen claimed this was "wrong and unnecessary".

She represented the Iona Institute at the Citizen's Assembly, which was discussing Irish abortion law. She campaigned for a No vote in the 2018 Irish abortion referendum, which was approved by the Irish electorate. She often participates in TV debates. The proposal was approved in the referendum by a 66% majority on a turnout of 64%.

Involvement in same-sex marriage referendum

In the run up to the 2015 Irish same-sex marriage referendum, she was one of the members of the Iona Institute who threatened legal action against RTÉ over claims from Rory O'Neill that the Iona Institute were homophobic, and received part of the €85,000 settlement ( " Pantigate").

She participated in TV debates in the run-up to the referendum. The amendment was approved in the referendum by 62% of voters on a turnout of 61%.

2024 constitutional referendums on family and care

In 2024, Steen campaigned against two proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland: the Thirty-ninth Amendment on the Family, which proposed to extend the constitutional definition of family to "other durable relationships" in addition to marriage, and the Fortieth Amendment, on Care, which proposed to remove references to women's "life within the home" and mothers' "duties in the home", and to add a new article on care within the family. In the lead-up to the referendums, Steen was part of a group of barristers, ''Lawyers for No'', to voice concern about the potential unintended consequences of these proposed changes, along with Senator Michael McDowell, Michael McNamara TD and Brenda Power. Steen appeared in a Television debate on RTE on the referendums, with Tánaiste Micheal Martin. Both proposed amendments were comprehensively rejected, respectively by 67.7 and 73.9 percent of voters.

See also

* Abortion in the Republic of Ireland
* Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steen, Maria
Irish anti-abortion activists
Living people
Irish women activists
Irish barristers
21st-century Irish architects
Irish women architects
Year of birth missing (living people)
Alumni of King's Inns
Alumni of University College Dublin