In a landmark vote, Ireland’s Citizen’s Assembly on reproductive rights for women has returned a majority opinion that abortion should be available with “no restriction as to reasons.”
Earlier in the day, the Assembly had overwhelmingly voted in favour of the validity of reasons such as risks to the mental health of the woman, socioeconomic circumstances, fatal foetal abnormality and conception through rape as grounds for accessing abortion.
Finally, the Assembly voted 64% to 36% (52 to 29) in favour of access to abortion without any restriction to the reasons behind the decision. Six people said they would prefer to not state an opinion.
Broken down further, 25 people support this policy as far as week 12 of gestation, 23 supported it as far as week 22 of gestation, and 4 supported the measure without any restrictions as to the stage of gestation. In countries where abortion is currently legal, terminations beyond week 21 are incredibly rare.
Worth comparing results of #CitizensAssembly with stages people access abortion at in countries where it's legal. pic.twitter.com/tfsIiQp28G
— Feminists in Dublin (@FemInDublin) April 23, 2017
The results were reported on Twitter by journalist Ellen Coyne, who added that were this change implemented, Irish women would no longer have to leave the country to access abortion services.
https://twitter.com/ellenmcoyne/status/856155363770605569
https://twitter.com/ellenmcoyne/status/856155980534599680
This, combined with yesterday's vote giving Oireachtas explicit power to legislate, is as close a pro-choice position as Assembly could come https://t.co/DE2rN6tRn4
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) April 23, 2017
