Reacting to the outcome of the May 25 Irish Referendum that repeals the country's Eighth Amendment, the clause in the Irish constitution that effectively outlaws abortion by giving equal rights to the unborn, Iratxe García Pérez MEP, S&D Group spokeswoman on women's rights and gender equality, said:
“The Irish people have shown compassion with women in crisis in a historic vote to repeal an anti-abortion law that left countless women devastated and some even dead. From now on women will no longer be forced to secretly take abortion pills at home without any medical supervision, or undertake lonely journeys abroad for a termination. The care women in crisis need will now be provided in Ireland. Gender equality, freedom and dignity are basic European values, sexual and reproductive health fundamental rights. The new laws will bring Ireland closer to the rest of Europe’s laws and values.”
Note to the editor:
In 1983, after a referendum, an Eighth Amendment was added to the country's constitution stating that ‘the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right’, which in practice means a near total ban on abortions, even in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality. Following the vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment, the government is expected to pass legislation that would give women access to termination within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and up until the 24th week of pregnancy where there is a risk to a woman's life or of serious harm to the physical or mental health of a woman.
