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Post by Admin on May 28, 2018 18:07:58 GMT
 A new abortion law will be in place by the end of the year, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said. It follows a landslide vote in favour of repealing the Republic of Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion.  The proposed legislation will allow abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and up to the 24th week in exceptional circumstances. Irish Minister for Health Simon Harris will seek the cabinet's backing on Tuesday to draft the new legislation.  Mr Varadkar said Saturday would be remembered as the day Ireland "embraced our responsibilities as citizens and as a country". "The day Ireland stepped out from under the last of our shadows and into the light," he added. "The day we came of age as a country. The day we took our place among the nations of the world." The Eighth Amendment was inserted into the Irish constitution in 1983 and it gave an equal right to life to the unborn and the mother. Thousands of Irish women travelled to the UK every year for abortions, or sourced abortion pills. |
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Post by Admin on Jul 8, 2018 18:11:00 GMT
 A referendum abortion vote in May in neighbouring Republic of Ireland, which saw a landslide in favour of repealing the state's near-total ban on terminations, has highlighted how limiting the Northern Irish law is. In 2016, 724 women from Northern Ireland, which has a population of 1.8 million, had a termination in England or Wales, according to We Trust Women, a campaign to decriminalise abortion in the UK.  The UK's 1967 Abortion Act - which established the practice of lawful abortions across Great Britain - was never applied in Northern Ireland. "Northern Ireland has one of the most restrictive abortion regimes in Europe," Catherine O'Rourke, a lecturer in human rights and international law at Northern Ireland's Ulster University, told Al Jazeera. But so-called pro-choice activists believe that change is afoot. The Republic of Ireland's vote is expected to allow women to have terminations within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. In early June, the UK Supreme Court said the current legislation was incompatible with human rights law, in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crime. |
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