The Republic of Ireland has historically remained out of step with the vast majority of Europe when it comes to abortion. Although more than 80 percent of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states permit abortion without restriction at the request of the woman, Ireland has been steadfastly committed to strict pro-life legislation, permitting legal abortion only under the most limited of circumstances, forcing many women to travel out of country to exercise their choice. But that is suddenly shifting, after the landslide result on May 25 of a referendum that will bring dramatic changes to abortion policy in Ireland.
The referendum put to the public the question of whether to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, which gives equal value to the life of the fetus as to the mother, and effectively made access to abortion impossible for the majority of Irish women. The amendment, which was inserted into the Constitution following an earlier referendum in 1983, has proven problematic over time and has been the subject of criticism in Ireland and abroad. A divisive social issue, it reflects a cultural and philosophical shift taking place in Ireland as the strong hold of the Catholic Church on Irish politics diminishes and a new generation of Irish voters—many of whom were not alive or were too young to remember the 1983 referendum—can now vote to influence national policy. According to the National Youth Council of Ireland, there was an “unprecedented surge of voter registration” leading up to the referendum vote, with up to 125,000 new voters, many of them between 18 and 29 years old.
There is reason to believe this next generation of Irish voters will be more liberal in their approaches to social issues than their predecessors. In 2015, for example, Ireland made history by becoming the first nation to legalize gay marriage by popular vote; 62.1 percent of voters were in favor, a startling outcome for conservatives and Catholics. In a surprisingly short time, Ireland has gone from being a conservative and deeply religious country to voicing more liberal values and outpacing much of Europe on some progressive issues.
After nearly 70 percent of referendum voters said “yes” to repealing the Eighth Amendment, it will be struck from the Constitution, replaced with the following language: “Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancies.” This will effectively pave the way for the government to introduce new abortion legislation, which is expected to include permitting termination of pregnancy without restriction up to 12 weeks, and allowing abortions beyond 12 weeks in the case of fatal fetal abnormalities or clear risk to the woman’s health due to pregnancy.
It is a big victory for Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s first openly gay head of government and the first from an ethnic minority background. Varadkar has said new abortion legislation will be in place by the end of the year.
The overwhelming “yes” vote represents a dramatic pivot in the long, divisive and—in the minds of many—draconian history of abortion law in Ireland. Prior to 1981, under the Offences Against the Person Act, abortion in Ireland was illegal in all circumstances, and anyone receiving or performing the procedure was “guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable . . . to be kept in penal servitude for life.”
The Catholic Church’s strong grip on Irish politics is loosening.
That remained Ireland’s abortion policy until 1981, when legal stances on abortion elsewhere, including the outcome of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in the United States, gave rise to a pro-life movement in Ireland. The Pro-Life Amendment Campaign, or PLAC, demanded even further constitutional assurance that the right to life of the unborn would be firmly protected. The insertion of the Eighth Amendment in 1983, which 66 percent of Irish voters approved, was a major victory for the PLAC and pro-life Catholic groups.
But the issue was further muddied just nine years later following the case of a 14-year-old girl who, after being raped, became pregnant and sought an abortion in the United Kingdom. This prompted a new referendum, which passed in 1992, that allowed for abortion in cases in which a woman’s life, as distinguished from her health, was in danger. Suicide was included as a death risk. The referendum also favored allowing Irish citizens to obtain and provide information about abortion services and freedom to travel abroad to terminate a pregnancy. But despite the referendum’s result, no legislation was put in place.
Criticism of these policies mounted internationally. In 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that an Irish woman, who had been diagnosed with fatal fetal syndrome, was subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment since she had been denied an abortion in Ireland and was forced to travel to the U.K. for the procedure. “The balance that the state party has chosen to strike between protection of the fetus and the rights of the woman in the present case cannot be justified,” it declared.
But the issue lay dormant in Irish politics until 2012, when Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian woman, died in an Irish hospital in Galway following complications from a septic miscarriage at 17 weeks. Her request for an abortion had been denied because her doctors determined her life was not in danger. By the time they reversed that decision, the miscarriage was complete and she was dead. The “yes” voters of last week’s referendum are now urging lawmakers to name the new abortion legislation after her.
Halappanavar’s death prompted protests across Ireland and abroad, leading to legislation based on the results of the 1992 referendum. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act was passed in 2013, allowing for abortion when the mother’s life was at risk, including by suicide, but only if two psychiatrists and an obstetrician agreed that the woman’s life was in danger. It also forced a woman to claim she was suicidal in order to get an abortion.
Repealing the Eighth Amendment will bring Irish policy more in line with the modern day and provide for safer care for women. It is also an indication, like the 2015 marriage equality vote, that the strong grip of the Catholic Church on Irish politics is loosening as public affiliation with the Church declines. A 2016 census showed Irish citizens identifying as Catholic had dropped by 132,200 between 2011 and 2016. According to a study, also in 2016, weekly mass attendance in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese was predicted to drop by a third over the next 15 years, and the number of priests to diminish by 6 percent in that time.
Nearly 80 percent of Ireland’s population, however, still identify as Catholic, and despite other indications of a more liberal attitude among young voters in Ireland, the pro-life movement among the country’s young citizens continues to have a strong voice. Katie Ascough, a 21-year-old who last year was impeached from her role as student union president at University College Dublin for removing pamphlets educating students about abortion, told the Irish Independent it is “not easy” being young and pro-life in Ireland. She tirelessly campaigned to keep the Eighth Amendment in place, and believes more young people would have done so if they were better-informed.
While lawmakers work to put together a new abortion policy, pro-lifers will have to come to terms with the rapid pace of social change in Ireland, even as the Catholic Church continues to hold sway when it comes to laws regarding marriage, divorce and other social issues.
Tracy Brown Hamilton is an Irish-American journalist living in the Netherlands. She has written about politics, education and social issues for The Atlantic and The Irish Times, among other publications.