Calls for Ulster law reform after Irish abortion vote landslide
Crowds applaud as ballot ends in victory for abortion repeal campaign but some No voters vow to fight on
MINISTERS are facing pressure to relax abortion laws in Northern Ireland, following a landslide vote to overturn a ban on terminations in the Republic.
Last night Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, hailed the “culmination of a quiet revolution”, as it emerged the country had voted by 66.4 per cent to 33.6 per cent to replace the eighth amendment, which bans abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk.
MPs who have been campaigning for a relaxation of the law in Ulster, where abortion is still highly restricted, pledged to table amendments to the Government’s proposed Domestic Abuse Bill, forcing a change. On Friday night Penny Mordaunt, the women and equalities minister, signalled her support for reform in Northern Ireland. She tweeted: “A historic and great day for Ireland, and a hopeful one for Northern Ireland. That hope must be met.”
The move, backed by a number of Tories, would cause a headache for Theresa May, whose government is being propped up by the Democratic Unionist Party, which strongly opposes the reforms. Stella Creasy, the Labour MP, yesterday called on Ms Mordaunt to “stand up to colleagues in Government stopping reform”.
Nicky Morgan, a Tory predecessor of Ms Mordaunt, said yesterday that she would support Ms Creasy’s planned amendments to the Bill. Ms Morgan was one of dozens of signatories to a letter in March calling for the Government to use the Bill to give women in Northern Ireland “comprehensive access to abortion in their own country”. She said: “I hope Northern Ireland politicians will… listen to all of the voices involved.”
IRELAND’S prime minister last night hailed as a “quiet revolution” the vote that delivered an overwhelming verdict in favour of repealing strict abortion laws and marked a drift away from the grip of the country’s conservative Catholic roots.
More than 67 per cent voted in favour of reform in a landslide victory for the pro-choice Yes campaign.
Crowds applauded, embraced and wept in the yard of Dublin Castle, where the result was announced after a day of counting the votes cast. A few yards down the road, at City Hall, a group of Yes voters broke into spontaneous singing, cheered on by passers-by.
Saying that Ireland had finally “come of age”, Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, said: “The people have said we want a modern constitution for a modern country, and that we trust women to make the right decisions about their own healthcare.”
The support for repealing Ireland’s eighth amendment, which only allows abortion if the mother’s life is at risk, was higher than even the most optimistic of projections in the early stages of the referendum.
It pointed to a seismic shift in social attitudes in a country once synonymous with dogmatic religious conservatism. The vote on Friday followed a landmark one on gay marriage and the election of a gay Taoiseach in Mr Varadkar in the last three years.
“We voted to look reality in the eye and we did not blink,” said Mr Varadkar.
Orla O’Connor, head of the prochoice Yes campaign, described the result as a “resounding roar for the Irish people”.
He said: “We will be forever indebted to those women and couples whose own bravery and dignity have moved hearts, changed minds and changed the country,” she said.
Repealing the eighth amendment will end a regime that banned abortion even in cases of rape or fatal foetal abnormalities. Thousands of women found themselves compelled to travel to England for terminations.
The outcome has also blurred the lines along which Ireland has been traditionally divided. Farmers, for example, came out enthusiastically for the pro-choice Yes campaign, as did a group called Grandfathers Say Yes, whose daughters and wives were unable to have safe terminations at home due to the eighth amendment.
“I am absolutely over the moon,” said 25-year-old Yes voter Erica Lee. “The vote for Yes is so much higher than we anticipated. There was talk of a divide between the Dublin bubble and rural areas that could tilt things toward No but that has turned out not to be the case, to our relief.”
She added the “patronising, nasty tone” of the No campaign, backed by the Catholic church, had brought large numbers of voters into the Yes camp.
Experts had predicted that many of Ireland’s rural regions would vote No, with the Yes votes concentrated around Dublin and other large cities.
But even in County Roscommon, which rejected gay marriage in the 2015 referendum, 59 per cent voted Yes. And in Longford, also long considered a haven of social conservatism, 58 per cent opted for repeal.
Yes support was so widespread that the pro-choice No campaign conceded defeat hours before the count finished.
“The people of Ireland weighed it in the balance and it came down on one side. I obviously would have preferred if they had come down on the other,” John McGuirk, spokesman for the “Save the 8th” campaign, said yesterday.
Dr Peter Boylan, a leading member of the Yes campaign and former Master of the National Maternity Hospital, said they were “relieved and vindicated”. Voters had been asked whether to scrap the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, which was introduced via a referendum in 1983, and replace it with unrestricted access to abortion to 12 weeks.
The amendment, it was argued, forced thousands of women to travel abroad for terminations, with many flying to Liverpool. Many resorted to buying illegal abortion pills online, which risks a 14-year prison sentence.
The Yes campaign, which included both young activists and older Irish people who had lived through the consequences of the amendment, said it was time to introduce a more compassionate law that spared women the distress and stigma of having terminations in exile.
But the No campaign warned voters that the government’s proposed replacement was “too extreme” and would allow “abortion on demand.” It also stoked fears that thousands of pregnancies where the foetus was likely to have a severe disability would be terminated early, before doctors could confirm whether the baby was healthy.
Ireland will now get to work passing legislation to repeal the eighth amendment and replace it with unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks. Mr Varadkar urged all Irish MPs and senators to honour the result, but some pro-life politicians have hinted at a rebellion.
Ronan Mullen, an independent senator in Roscommon, said he would work to stop replacement laws being passed. “I have a lot of sorrow. A lot of unborn children will lose their lives,” he said. “I’d ask people to keep those children in their thoughts and prayers. The amendment gave us a very just and compassionate law. We’ve lost something very beautiful.”
Asked if he would acknowledge the will of the Irish people, he replied: “Absolutely not.”
Terminations for later term pregnancies in certain cases, such as those with fatal foetal abnormalities, will be permitted under the new law.
The decision will have implications for Northern Ireland, where abortion is still illegal in most circumstances. Pressure was growing last night on the British Government to relax the laws in Belfast, lining up a possible confrontation between Theresa May and her prolife DUP coalition partners.