Irish overwhelmingly back repeal of abortion ban
Nearly two-thirds support effort to expand reproductive rights
DUBLIN – Irish voters overwhelmingly backed a repeal of Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion in a sweeping cultural change representing a move away from the nation’s conservative Catholic roots.
The final tally Saturday showed that 66.4 percent supported the repeal out of 2.1 million votes cast, according to election official Barry Ryan.
Ireland’s government, following the outcome, will now seek to pass legislation that allows abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The current law prohibits all abortions in Ireland, except in cases when the woman’s life is at risk, and having an illegal abortion is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
As the exit polls pointed to a victory for abortion rights supporters, Ireland’s center-right Prime Minister Leo Varadkar tweeted that “what we’ve seen today is the culmination of a quiet revolution that’s been taking place in Ireland over the last 20 years.”
The projected result had drawn strong reaction from abortion rights activists and opponents.
“Abortion on demand would deal Ireland a tragic blow, but the pro-life movement will rise to any challenge it faces,” said Cora Sherlock, an abortion rights objector.
John Aidan Byrne, 58, an Irishman who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years and runs a group called Irish Pro-Life USA, said that doing away with the ban would mean “fewer protections” for his friends and family in Ireland.
“Once you introduce legalized abortion, it changes the entire dynamic of society. And it divides it politically, socially and — let’s be frank — spiritually,” he said.
But others viewed the vote as evidence that Ireland, for years held back by traditional voices in the church, was embracing tolerance and continuing down a path of liberalization after national votes in recent years that ushered in legalizing contraception, divorce, homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
“We woke up this morning to a new Ireland. Ireland’s changed,” said Deidre Duffy, one of the organizers of the campaign to change the abortion law.
“One by one, the manacles imposed by clerical control and society’s deference to it have been removed, and Ireland has altered beyond recognition,” Martina Devlin wrote in a column for the Irish Independent newspaper Saturday.
Lawyer Anna McCarthy, 35, was standing Saturday near a Dublin mural of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist who died in Galway in 2012 because of blood poisoning resulting from a miscarriage after she was denied an abortion.
Halappanavar’s death helped galvanize efforts to change Ireland’s abortion laws.
“This is something to be celebrated,” McCarthy said.
“Finally, we’re not shaming women; we’re not punishing them or judging them – we’re just going to have a law that supports people in crisis. This is a win for everybody.”
Messages of condolence were affixed to a wall next to the image of Halappanavar.
“This should NEVER have happened to you,” one read. “Our babies were only six weeks apart, you inspired me and the whole nation to say NEVER AGAIN.”