Ireland votes on Friday in an abortion referendum that could be a milestone on a path of change in a country that, only a few decades ago, was one of Europe’s most socially conservative. Polls suggest Irish voters are set to overturn one of the world’s strictest bans on terminations. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, in favor of change, has called the referendum a “once-in-a-generation” chance.
Voters in the once deeply Catholic nation will be asked if they wish to scrap a prohibition that was enshrined in the constitution by referendum 35 year ago, and partly lifted in 2013 only for cases where the mother’s life is in danger.
Ireland has been changing fast. It legalized divorce by a razor-thin majority only in 1995, but three years ago became the first country in the world to adopt gay marriage by popular vote.
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A decades-old battle over abortion has played out in a fiercely contested debate that divided political parties, saw the once mighty church take a back seat and became a test case for how global internet giants deal with social media advertising in political campaigns.
Unlike in 1983, when religion was front and center and abortion was a taboo subject for most people, the campaign was instead defined by women on both sides publicly describing their personal experiences of terminations.
“The conversation that has resulted in me going to the ballot box to vote ‘Yes’ with certainty hasn’t been a straightforward one,” Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney wrote in the Irish Independent newspaper on Thursday.
“I have found it difficult, I have stumbled but I have met extraordinary women and men along the way who have changed my perspectives on this deeply emotive issue.”
“Yes” campaigners like Coveney have argued that with over 3,000 women traveling to Britain each year for terminations and others ordering pills illegally online, abortion is already a reality in Ireland.
