DUBLIN: Pro-abortionists, including Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, were yesterday optimistic that a strong turnout in the country’s abortion referendum yesterday would favour those seeking change in what only two decades ago was one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries.
Opinion polls suggest voters in the once deeply Catholic nation are set to overturn one of the world’s strictest bans on terminations, and analysts say the high turnout, particularly in urban areas, is likely to favour a “yes” vote.
Queues formed outside some polling stations yesterday and there was speculation that the turnout could top the 61% who backed gay marriage in 2015.
Voters were asked if they wished to scrap a 1983 amendment to the constitution that gives an unborn child and its mother equal rights to life.
The consequent prohibition on abortion was partly lifted in 2013 for cases where the mother’s life was in danger.
Ireland legalised divorce by a razor-thin majority only in 1995, but became the first country to adopt gay marriage.
But no social issue has divided its 4.8 million people as sharply as abortion, which was pushed up the political agenda by the death in 2012 of a 31-year-old Indian immigrant from a septic miscarriage after she was refused a termination.
“I think this issue is important because it’s been 35 years since any person has had a choice to vote on this,” said Sophie O’Gara, 28, who was voting yes near Dublin’s bustling ‘Silicon Docks’, home to some of the world’s biggest technology firms.
“So many women have travelled across to England to take care of their family and healthcare needs, and I think it’s a disgrace and it needs to change,” she said, referring to women who travel to Britain for abortions.
Videos shared on social media showed scores of voters arriving home at Irish airports from abroad. Ireland does not allow expatriates to vote via post or in embassies, but those away for less than 18 months remain on the electoral roll.
As with the gay marriage referendum, those using the #hometovote hashtag on Twitter appeared overwhelmingly to back change. Many posted photos of themselves in sweatshirts saying “Repeal”.
“Women and girls should not be made into health-care refugees when they are in a time of crisis,” said Niamh Kelly, 27, who paid 800 euros (R11600) and travelled 20 hours to return from Hanoi where she works as an English teacher.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime generation chance to lift the culture of shame that surrounds this issue so it was really important to me to be part of that.”
The fiercely contested vote has divided political parties, seen the once-mighty church take a back seat and become a test case for how global internet giants deal with social media advertising in political campaigns.
In 1983, when religion was front and centre and abortion was a taboo subject for most, the campaign was defined by women on both sides publicly describing their personal experiences of terminations.
“Yes” campaigners have argued that with over 3000 women travelling to Britain each year for terminations and others ordering pills illegally online, abortion is already a reality in Ireland.