IRELAND
National Public Radio
January 2, 2018
By Frank Langfitt
Long considered among Europe’s most socially conservative countries, Ireland is holding a referendum next year to legalize abortion. The vote follows another that legalized same-sex marriage, and the election of the country’s first, gay prime minister.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Ireland used to be one of the most socially conservative nations in Europe. Lately that’s been changing. In 2015, voters legalized same-sex marriage. During last year’s election, the country voted in a gay, biracial prime minister. And this summer, the Catholic country will vote on whether to repeal one of the strictest abortion laws in the Western world. NPR’s Frank Langfitt reports from Dublin; there have been calls for this change for many years.
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FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: They held candles and signs that read never again – some 2,000 people protesting the death of Savita Halappanavar outside government buildings here in 2012. The dentist from India died after doctors refused to perform an abortion while she was miscarrying. Taking the microphone, Sinead Redmond of the group Parents for Choice demanded change.
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SINEAD REDMOND: Savita Halappanavar is dead unnecessarily, and we are all complicit while the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution remains in place.
LANGFITT: Now, five years on, Irish citizens will finally have a chance to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the country’s constitution which only permits abortion in exceptional cases, such as to save the life of the mother. Ailbhe Smyth, who was among the protesters that night, says Halappanavar’s death was a turning point.
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