Right now, Ireland is gearing up for a landmark referendum that will decide the future of the country’s notoriously strict abortion laws. As campaigning on both sides of the debate intensifies, here’s everything you need to know.
What is the Eighth Amendment?
Ireland’s Eighth Amendment is a ruling that recognises the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn foetus – which effectively makes abortion illegal in Ireland unless the mother’s life is at immediate risk. Enshrined in the country’s Constitution since 1983 after a bitter campaign between the liberal left and the Catholic and conservative right, no one under the age of 52 has ever had the opportunity to vote on the amendment.
The near-total ban on abortion even includes cases of rape, incest and foetal abnormality and breaking the law carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Before 2013 abortions and information about them were completely banned regardless of circumstances. Now, an Irish woman can legally travel abroad for a safe termination in a foreign country – so essentially, you can have an abortion abroad, but not at home. And it’ll cost you.
What’s the deal with the referendum?
On 25 May 2018, the Irish electorate will vote either for or against repealing the Eighth Amendment. The ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote will decide whether the country’s strict abortion laws can be reformed under a new bill which will make terminations legal in Ireland. In the case of a ‘yes’ vote the law still won’t match up to abortion provisions in England, Wales and Scotland (up to 24 weeks in most cases), but the Irish government has said that it will introduce legislation allowing unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks, and when a mother’s life, health or mental health is at risk.
But if the vote is ‘no’, the amendment will remain and decades of campaigning for the liberalisation of abortion law in Ireland will be undone. The outcome of the vote carries life-changing consequences that the individual women and girls of Ireland (around 50% of the population, in fact) must live with every day.
So what are the arguments?
Coalitions have formed on either side of the Repeal the Eighth debate. On the ‘no’ side, pro-lifers are campaigning to keep the Eighth, arguing that human life begins at conception and that every human has a right to life regardless of circumstance. Ireland is widely agreed to be one of the most devoutly Catholic countries in the world, and a significant part of the ‘no’ campaign is based on moral and religious grounds championed by the conservative right and the Catholic church. Leading figures from the church have spoken out in support of keeping the Eighth – they believe that the amendment saves lives and that repealing it would strip a foetus of all meaningful, constitutional protections.
Meanwhile, in favour of repeal are those who believe that a woman’s reproductive rights and right to choose whether she has a baby or not are paramount. Both the UN and Amnesty International have found that the Eighth Amendment is the cause of serious human rights violations against women and girls in Ireland. According to them, the Eighth violates a woman’s right to equality and to be free from “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”. A number of high profile celebrities have put their support behind the campaign, including Oscar-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan, while The Repeal Project's 'Repeal' sweatshirts have become such a coveted statement that they've completely sold out online.
Since the Eighth says that abortion is not permitted even when a woman’s health is at risk, it means she only has a qualified – not free and equal – right to healthcare. Not to mention also criminalising any woman who has an abortion. The ‘yes’ campaign argue that all this amounts to some pretty massive gender discrimination.
And their trump card – global research shows that restrictive abortion regimes don’t stop women having abortions anyway – they just stop them from having them safely. Since 1983, some 170,000 Irish women have travelled abroad in order to have an abortion, and it is estimated that 2,000 women take illegal and potentially dangerous abortion pills every year.
Every day 12 women and girls from Ireland have an abortion, one way or the other. But if the Eighth Amendment is repealed, after 25 May, they could finally be having them on home turf. Safely, legally, and for free.
