Ireland moves forward with abortion law reform after historic vote

Ireland’s health minister has said he will push forward with new abortion laws after Saturday’s resounding referendum result overturned a 35-year ban on terminations.

Simon Harris said he would start the process on Tuesday, when the Irish cabinet will meet to discuss draft legislation to allow terminations within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and up to 24 weeks in exceptional circumstances.

The Irish electorate voted by 1,429,981 votes to 723,632 in favour of abolishing the controversial eighth amendment to the constitution that gave equal legal status to the lives of a foetus and the woman carrying it. The result was a two-thirds majority: 66.4% yes to 33.6% no.

Abortion will not immediately be available to women within Ireland.

The eighth amendment – article 40.3.3 of the Irish constitution – which prohibited abortion, will be replaced with a clause stating: “Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.”

The Irish government is planning to bring legislation before the Dáil, providing for abortion on request up to the 12th week of pregnancy, with a three-day “cooling off” period before medication is administered.

The prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said he wanted the new law to be enacted by the end of the year.

Between 12 and 24 weeks, abortion will be available only in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, a risk to a woman’s life or a risk of serious harm to the health of the mother. After 24 weeks, termination will be possible in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

There will be provision for conscientious objection among medical practitioners, although doctors will be obliged to transfer care of the pregnant woman to another doctor.

Draft legislation was set out before Friday’s vote and will now be formalised over the coming weeks, to be tabled in the Dáil, Ireland’s parliament, in the autumn. Speaking on Saturday, the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said he hoped the law would be changed before the end of the year.

The change is not expected to face significant hurdles in parliament, with members who opposed repeal acknowledging the overwhelming nature of the result.

On Saturday’s announcement of the historic result at Dublin Castle, Harris told supporters of repeal: “Under the eighth amendment we used to say to women in crisis: take the boat or take the plane. Today we say, take our hand.”

Varadkar said Saturday would be remembered as the day Ireland “embraced our responsibilities as citizens and as a country … The day Ireland stepped out from under the last of our shadows and into the light. The day we came of age as a country. The day we took our place among the nations of the world.”

Saturday’s triumph for abortion reformers occurred only months before Pope Francis visits the country – the first since John Paul II’s tour of Ireland in 1979.

Orla O’Connor, the co-director of the Together for Yes campaign, said it was “a monumental day for women in Ireland”, calling the result “a rejection of an Ireland that treats women as second-class citizens”.

Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, stressed that the outcome proved this was “not Dublin versus the rest … not a rural-urban division”.

One of the first constituencies to declare a result – Dublin Central – had nearly 77% voting yes. Yet even in traditionally conservative Roscommon/East Galway the first tallies from the count showed 57% for yes and 43% for no. Other rural constituencies such as Carlow/Kilkenny also voted 63.5% in favour of change.

In the last major referendum, the vote to legalise same-sex marriage three years ago, Roscommon was the only area to vote no.

This time, the only constituency to return a majority of no votes was Donegal, where 51.87% opposed repeal, while 48.13% backed it.

The overall turnout of Friday’s abortion referendum, at 64.51%, exceeded the 60.5% that voted in the 2015 marriage plebiscite.

Victory for the yes side means that the only part of the United Kingdom and Ireland where abortion remains banned in almost all circumstances is Northern Ireland.

On Saturday afternoon, both Amnesty International and the Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, called for Northern Ireland’s near-total ban on abortion to be lifted.

Amnesty’s Grainne Teggart said women in Northern Ireland were “still prosecuted by a Victoria-era abortion ban”.

Teggart said the British government could no longer turn a blind eye to the plight of Northern Irish women who were forced to travel across the Irish Sea for abortions.