Irish vote to free up abortion laws
End of ‘quiet revolution’
DUBLIN: Ireland’s prime minister yesterday hailed the culmination of ‘‘a quiet revolution’’ in what was once one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries after a landslide referendum vote to liberalise highly restrictive laws on abortion.
Voters in the once deeply Catholic nation backed the change by twotoone, a far higher margin than any opinion poll before the vote had predicted, which will allow the Government to bring in legislation by the end of the year.
‘‘It’s incredible. For all the years and years and years we’ve been trying to look after women and not been able to look after women, this means everything,’’ obstetrician and Together For Yes campaigner Mary Higgins said.
For decades, the law forced more than 3000 women to travel to Britain each year for terminations and ‘‘Yes’’ campaigners argued that with others now ordering pills illegally online, abortion was already a reality in Ireland.
The campaign was defined by women publicly sharing their painful experiences of leaving the country for procedures, a key reason why all but one of Ireland’s 40 constituencies voted ‘‘Yes’’.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who campaigned to repeal the laws, had called the vote a onceinageneration chance and voters responded by turning out in droves. A turnout of 64% was one of the highest for a referendum.
‘‘Today is an historic day for Ireland. A quiet revolution has taken place,’’ Varadkar, who became Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister last year, said in a speech after the vote.
‘‘Everyone deserves a second chance. This is Ireland’s second chance to treat everyone equally and with compassion and respect.’’
The outcome is a new milestone on a path of change for a country which only legalised divorce by a razorthin majority in 1995 before becoming the first in the world to adopt gay marriage by popular vote three years ago.
The oncemighty Catholic Church took a back seat throughout the campaign.
Antiabortion activists conceded defeat as their opponents expressed astonishment at the scale of their victory. Lawmakers who campaigned for a ‘‘No’’ vote said they would not seek to block the Government’s plans to allow abortions with no restriction up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
‘‘What Irish voters did yesterday is a tragedy of historic proportions,’’ the Save The 8th group said.
‘‘However, a wrong does not become a right simply because a majority support it.’’
Voters were asked to scrap the constitutional amendment, which gives an unborn child and its mother equal rights to life. The consequent prohibition on abortion was partly lifted in 2013 for cases where the mother’s life was in danger.
A Abortion rights activists in Northern Ireland called on the British Government to end what one group described as the province’s ‘‘Victorianera abortion ban’’ after neighbouring Ireland voted to liberalise its laws.
‘‘It must not be forgotten that us women in Northern Ireland are still persecuted by a Victorianera abortion ban,’’ Grainne Teggart, the Northern Ireland campaign manager for Amnesty International, said yesterday.
The British Government’s Northern Ireland Office declined to comment, saying it was a devolved matter. —