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Irish Prime Minister (PM) Leo Varadkar said a referendum will be held in May after a cabinet greenlit action to review Ireland's strict abortion laws.
Abortion Rights Campaign spokeswoman, Linda Kavanagh, told CNN that her organization “will be keeping a close eye on the wording on the legislation and the referendum to make sure that this is done right” in response to the announcement.
“We've worked so hard to get to this point and we want a very simple question to the people," she said. "We want them to know what this referendum is about, and it is up to the politicians to explain this act to the layperson.”
Ireland has some of the strictest abortion laws in the developed world. According to Pew Research Center, the country is among 50 countries that only allow terminations when the life of the would-be mother is threatened. Incest and rape are not among the exceptions.
The PM said he would advocate a “yes” vote to repeal Ireland's 8th amendment. "We already have abortion – unsafe, unregulated, unlawful. We cannot continue to export our problem and import our solution.”
An Irish Times poll showed that about 56 percent of Irish voters support changes to the eighth amendment.
“I believe that this is a decision about whether we want to continue to stigmatize and criminalize our sisters, our co-workers and our friends or whether we are prepared to take a collective act of leadership to show empathy and compassion,” Varadkar added.
But, Pro Life Campaign issued a release which referred to the Irish Government's decision “as bad as anyone could have envisaged: the removal of legal protection from unborn babies and providing for abortion on demand.” The group's spokesperson, Dr. Ruth Cullen, said the referendum is "a very sad and serious moment for our country."
PM Varadkar said he would campaign for the abortion laws to be amended. “I know this will be a difficult decision for the Irish people to make. For most of us, it is not a black-and-white issue – it is very grey,” the prime minister further explained.
“If it is approved, and I believe it will be approved, it will say that as a country we have come of age,” a Reuters report quoted the PM as saying. For the referendum to move ahead, the cabinet’s decision must be approved by both houses of Ireland’s Parliament.
Over the past 35 years, the constitution has dictated the legality of abortion in the Catholic-majority country. It is against the law. The constitution assigns equal right-to-life to both mother and unborn child.
Last September, 40,000 people rallied for changes to be made to the amendment during the 6th annual “March for Choice.”
Government figures revealed that nearly 4,000 women traveled to England and Wales to terminate pregnancies in 2016.
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