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London, May 26
Ireland’s Indian-origin Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Saturday declared victory in the country’s historic referendum to overturn a ban on abortions as the first official results showed over 66 per cent backing for repealing the amendment against terminations.
“What we’ve seen is the culmination of a quiet revolution that’s been taking place in Ireland over the past 20 years,” he said.
A vote in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment, which took place on Friday, paves the way for the Dáil, or Irish Parliament, to legislate for change which would see the introduction of a much more liberal regime.
Results from the first four of 40 constituencies to declare showed 66.36 per cent voted “Yes” and 33.64 per cent voted “No”, on a 62 per cent turnout, the Central Count Centre in Dublin announced.
Support for “Yes” was at 77 per cent in Dublin Central, 69 per cent in Cork South-Central, 64 per cent in Cork North-Central and 60 per cent in Galway East.
The ‘Savethe8th’ movement, which led the No campaign, had effectively conceded defeat. “What Irish voters did yesterday (Friday) is a tragedy of historic proportions. However, a wrong does not become right simply because a majority support it,” it said in a statement.
Parliamentary battle
One of the key cases influencing the debate on abortion in Ireland was that of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar, who died of sepsis in a hospital in Galway after being denied an abortion during a protracted miscarriage in 2012.
Her husband Praveen had told her inquest she requested a termination but was refused because the baby’s heart was still beating. A midwife manager at Galway University Hospital confirmed that she told Halappanavar that a termination could not be carried out because Ireland was a “Catholic country”. The inquest into her death returned a verdict of medical misadventure.
“I hope the people of Ireland remember my daughter Savita on the day of the referendum, and that what happened to her won’t happen to any other family,” her father Andanappa Yalagi said from his home in Karnataka.
Her death had triggered a massive debate in the country over the issue of life-saving abortions and resulted in a new law that allows abortions under extreme circumstances. The Irish Parliament voted to legalise abortion in cases of medical emergencies as well as the risk of suicide in July, 2013.
The referendum this week will take that further, and with a win for the Yes vote, the existing article of the Constitution which was inserted in 1983 – and the 1992 additions – will be replaced with this text: “Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.” — PTI
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