Ireland Prime Minister Says He Will Campaign to Repeal Abortion Ban
Asked if he would favor a relaxation of the laws, Mr. Varadkar said: "I’ll be campaigning for them to be changed and to be liberalized, yes." Mr. Varadkar’s announcement came one day after The Irish Times published an opinion poll
that suggested a majority of Irish people, 56 percent, favor repealing the constitutional ban and permitting abortion for up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy, as recommended by a parliamentary committee.
27, 2018
DUBLIN — The Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday
that he will campaign to end his country’s constitutional ban on abortion, the subject of a referendum later this year, ending weeks of uncertainty about his position.
Mr. Martin’s decision, which he said was based on the medical, legal
and personal testimony given to last year’s parliamentary committee on abortion, put him at odds with factions of his own conservative Fianna Fail party, which at its most recent annual conference voted overwhelmingly against repealing the ban.
These terms pro-life and pro-choice don’t really comprehend the complexity of this issue, which is a very private
and personal one and one I think contains a lot of gray areas." If repealed, the constitutional ban would be replaced by legislation regulating abortion, most likely permitting it under at least some circumstances.
An all-party parliamentary committee voted in December in favor of permitting unrestricted abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy,
and later in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal abnormality.
While Mr. Varadkar had said previously that the law should be more liberal, he had,
as recently as last Thursday, declined to say whether he would campaign for repeal.
