Written By Becky Kells, Editor, AllAboutLaw

Ireland to hold referendum on abortion law

Written By Becky Kells, Editor, AllAboutLaw

The Republic of Ireland will hold a referendum on abortion in May of this year, after years of campaigning for reform to the country’s controversial abortion laws. Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, announced the decision to hold a referendum on the evening of 29 January.

In the referendum, the electorate will decide whether to repeal or retain the Irish law - the eighth amendment to the constitution - which currently bans termination of pregnancy.

If the electorate votes to repeal the eighth amendment, legislation will be drafted, bringing the prospect of legal terminations for Irish women with pregnancies lasting 12 weeks or less, it is expected.

Traditionally, Leo Varadkar has been anti-abortion, taking a public stance against it, saying he did not want “abortion on demand”. Yet he tweeted about how his own views on abortion “have evolved over time”, concluding that abortion has “no place in the Constitution”.

Speaking of the women across Ireland who currently face international journeys if they want to have a termination, Varadkar also tweeted: “We know that thousands of Irish women - from every county in Ireland - go abroad for abortions every year. We know that many women are obtaining abortion pills through the post to end their pregnancies. So we have abortion in Ireland, but it is unsafe, unregulated and illegal”.

Not everyone agreed with Varadkar, however - the Pro Life Campaign called the referendum “as bad as anyone could have envisaged: the removal of legal protection from unborn babies and providing for abortion on demand.”

Abortion has been explicitly illegal in Ireland for 35 years, when the eighth amendment was first made to the constitution in 1983. Prior to that, abortion was illegal in Ireland under the Offences against the Person Act 1861 - a statute of the UK law which remained in effect.

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