Macron: Ireland makes history with abortion vote

After that, abortions will only be allowed until the 24th week of pregnancy if there is a risk to a woman’s life, or a risk of serious harm to the physical or mental health of a woman. Thousands more order abortion-inducing pills like mifepristone, which are illegally imported into Ireland.

If citizens vote in favor of repeal, new abortion laws will then be discussed in parliament.

Proposals for draft laws should the amendment be repealed do not include such a provision.

Ireland’s unique grassroots system called “The Tally” has seen volunteers monitor the contents of ballot boxes as they were being opened at counting centers throughout the country.

The outcome is a new milestone on a path of change for a country which only legalized divorce by a razor thin majority in 1995 before becoming the first in the world to adopt gay marriage by popular vote three years ago.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Varadkar criticized those opposed to abortion for some campaign advertising. After many recent years of concerns over women dying or traveling out of the country to access such services, between 2017 and 2018, the center-right government under Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the country’s first multi-racial and openly gay head of government, have made a decision to allow the referendum on the constitutional amendment’s repeal to be set for May. The referendum result showed that many Irish voters agreed that women in those circumstances should be allowed a choice.

On 25 May, people in Ireland will cast their votes to decide whether the 8th amendment of the country’s constitution-which now makes abortion illegal in nearly all cases- will be repealed.

“The day Ireland stepped out from under the last of our shadows and into the light”, he added.

The vote “now means I can do my job without the fear of going to jail”, said Grainne McDermott, a doctor who works in intensive care in a Dublin hospital. Some ads had suggested that lifting current restrictions would lead to abortions of babies with the genetic disorder.

Mr Varadkar said Saturday would be remembered as the day Ireland “embraced our responsibilities as citizens and as a country”. It is a vote for a future Ireland where the human rights of women and girls are respected and protected.

In a the referendum, voters will decide if they want to repeal an article in the republic’s constitution known as the eighth amendment. “I was not ready for a child to crash into my life”, she said. Since 2013, they are allowed only when the mother’s life is at risk, including from suicide. God is on the side of those fearless Irish men and women, many hailing from rural areas, who will fight for the life of future generations with their ballots.

That said, billions of dollars have been poured into the Emerald Isle from overseas to ensure a pro-abortion “Yes” vote.

Sinn Fein and the SDLP, the two major parties representing Northern Ireland’s Irish Catholics, and the cross-community Alliance Party, back overturning the ban.

There have been five previous votes on repealing the Eighth Amendment, all of which failed. “We don’t believe in taking a life”, said Michael Eustace, 55.

Official counting is set to begin in Ireland’s historic abortion rights referendum, with two exit polls predicting an overwhelming victory for those seeking to end the country’s strict ban.

While stressing they support the “yes” camp, the unions at Oxford and Nottingham said the bursaries are available to all Irish students regardless of how they intend to vote.

Reform in Ireland also raised the prospect that women in Northern Ireland, where abortion is still illegal, may start traveling south of the border.

Abortions would be accessible to women who are in their first 12 weeks of pregnancy.