Abortion referendum: more rights for women in Ireland

By MiNDFOOD

Women celebrate the result of the referendum on liberalising abortion law, in Dublin, Ireland, May 26, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Women celebrate the result of the referendum on liberalising abortion law, in Dublin, Ireland, May 26, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Ending years of the Catholic church’s strong influence on the European Republic, Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to legalise abortion.

Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to legalise abortion in a some-what stunning referendum ending years of the Catholic church’s strong influence on the European Republic.

According to the BBC, the Irish electorate voted with a two-thirds majority: 66.4% yes to 33.6% no, in favour of abolishing a controversial constitutional amendment that gave equal legal status to an unborn baby and the woman carrying it.

Currently, abortion is only allowed when a woman’s life is at risk.

The result has come as a shock to the many Catholic Irish, with the church firm on its stance that abortion should not be legalised. It does, however, signal more rights for women who wish to terminate their pregnancy up to 12 weeks in, giving more options to the woman, who may have been raped for instance.

Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has welcomed the reform and has promised to introduce legal terminations by the end of this year, according to the Guardian. The Irish Minister for Health, Simon Harris will seek the cabinet’s backing on Tuesday to draft the new legislation.

Saturday’s triumph for abortion reformers happened only months before the head of the Catholic church is due to visit the country. The Vatican has yet to officially comment on the outcome of the vote.

Anti-abortion groups have called the referendum result a ”tragedy of historic proportions”, they told the BBC, with one saying it was already making plans to protest outside abortion clinics when they eventually open in Ireland.

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