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| Irish abortion referendum: Vote to be held in in May | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Irish government has agreed to hold a referendum at the end of May on whether to reform the country's near-total ban on abortion. | The Irish government has agreed to hold a referendum at the end of May on whether to reform the country's near-total ban on abortion. |
| The vote will decide whether to repeal a constitutional amendment that effectively bans terminations. | The vote will decide whether to repeal a constitutional amendment that effectively bans terminations. |
| Currently abortion is only allowed when a woman's life is at risk, but not in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality. | Currently abortion is only allowed when a woman's life is at risk, but not in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality. |
| Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said that he will campaign for reform. | Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said that he will campaign for reform. |
| Voters will decide whether or not to remove a 1983 amendment to the Republic of Ireland's constitution which "acknowledges the right to life of the unborn". | |
| The ballot will not be on specific terms of any new law. | |
| 'Not black and white' | |
| The announcement comes after a special cross-party parliamentary committee said in December that the constitution was not fit for purpose and recommended that the eighth amendment should be repealed. | |
| "I know this will be a difficult decision for the Irish people to make," Mr Varadkar said. | |
| "I know it is a very personal and private issue and for most of us it is not a black-and-white issue, it is one that is grey - the balance between the rights of a pregnant woman and the foetus or unborn." | |
| Mr Varadkar, the country's former health minister, acknowledged that thousands of women in the country travelled every year for terminations or took pills ordered online at home. | |
| He said the current law meant that abortions in Ireland were "unsafe, unregulated and illegal". | |
| "These journeys do not have to happen, and that can change, and that's now in our hands," he said. | |
| In 2016, 3,265 women and girls gave Republic of Ireland addresses when accessing abortion services at clinics in England and Wales, according to UK Department of Health statistics. | |
| Abortion in the Republic of Ireland | |
| The Republic of Ireland currently has a near total ban on abortion. | |
| Terminations are not permitted in cases of rape or incest, or when there is a foetal abnormality and thousands of women travel abroad for a termination every year. | |
| The eighth amendment to the Republic's constitution, introduced in 1983, "acknowledges the right to life of the unborn". | |
| However, there have been significant challenges and changes to the law in recent years. | |
| A campaign to liberalise abortion gathered momentum in 2012, after Indian woman Savita Halappanavar died in a Galway hospital after she was refused an abortion during a miscarriage. | |
| The following year, legislation was passed to legalise abortion when doctors deem that a woman's life is at risk due to medical complications, or at risk of taking her life. | |
| Twenty years before Mrs Halappanavar's death, a 14-year-old rape victim was initially prevented from travelling to England to terminate her pregnancy. | |
| It became known as the X Case, as the girl could not be named to protect her right to anonymity. | |
| The 1992 ban on travel was later overturned by the Irish Supreme Court. | |
| A referendum approved a further update to the constitution, stating that the eighth amendment did not restrict the freedom to travel to another state. |