DUBLIN — Attention is turning Sunday to Ireland’s parliament now that the country’s citizens have voted in landslide numbers to remove the abortion ban from its constitution.
It will be up to parliament to make new laws to govern abortions now that the public has rejected the constitution’s Eighth Amendment in a referendum Friday.
The nearly two-to-one vote ended a harsh anti-abortion regime enacted in 1983. It required doctors to regard the rights of a fetus, from the moment of conception, as equal to the rights of the mother.
In practice, it meant Irish women had to travel abroad for terminations.
The nationwide rejection of the amendment represented a growing tolerance on social issues in the traditionally Roman Catholic country.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar hailed the vote as bringing a new era to Ireland.
He said it will be remembered as “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.”
His government will propose that abortions be permissible in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. It isn’t yet clear what strategy abortion opponents will use in parliament in light of the unexpectedly large vote in favour of repeal.
Some expect a bruising fight in parliament, where there is strong opposition to reform in some quarters, but a more conciliatory debate is also possible.
The decisive outcome of the landmark referendum was cast as a historic victory for women’s rights. Exit polls indicated that the repeal was endorsed in urban and rural areas alike, with strong support from both men and women.
Backing for repeal was highest among young voters, including many who returned from jobs or universities in continental Europe to vote, but was also high among every age group except those 65 or older.
Since 1983, the Eighth Amendment had forced women seeking to terminate pregnancies to go abroad for abortions, bear children conceived through rape or incest, or take risky illegal measures at home.