Ireland to hold referendum in May on easing abortion ban
LONDON — Ireland’s voters will decide in late May on whether to lift a constitutional ban on most abortions, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Monday.
Varadkar spoke after a special meeting of the Cabinet to agree on details of a referendum on the eighth amendment to Ireland’s constitution.
Varadkar says voters will be asked whether they want to retain the amendment, or repeal it and hand responsibility for legislating on abortion to parliament.
The 1983 amendment commits authorities to defend equally the right to life of a mother and an unborn child, giving this largely Roman Catholic nation the strictest abortion restrictions in Europe. Abortion is legal only in rare cases when a woman’s life is in danger.