Ireland Repeals Restrictive Abortion Law In Landslide Vote
Posted on by Randy Slovacek

Ireland Repeals Restrictive Abortion Law In Landslide Vote

Ireland Repeals Restrictive Abortion Law In Landslide Vote

In a landslide victory for women’s rights, Ireland has voted to repeal its restrictive abortion laws despite opposition from the Catholic Church.

The official tally was 1,429,981 “Yes” votes to 723,632 “No” votes resulting in a two-thirds majority: 66.4% yes to 33.6% no.

From The New York Times:

Ireland voted decisively to repeal one of the world’s more restrictive abortion bans, the prime minister said Saturday, sweeping aside generations of conservative patriarchy and dealing the latest in a series of stinging rebukes to the Roman Catholic Church.

The surprising landslide cemented the nation’s liberal shift at a time when right-wing populism is on the rise in Europe and the Trump administration is imposing curbs on abortion rights in the United States. In the past three years alone, Ireland has installed a gay man as prime minister and has voted in another referendum to allow same-sex marriage.

But this was a particularly wrenching issue for Irish voters, even for supporters of the measure. And it was not clear until the end that the momentum toward socially liberal policies would be powerful enough to sweep away the deeply ingrained opposition to abortion.