The Irish Abortion Referendum
Motherhood, and specfically the ability to carry and give birth to a baby, is simultaneously revered as the epitome of the greatest of all human powers, the ability to create new life, and ridiculed and undervalued as ‘women’s work’.
The power to choose not to give birth, and instead end a pregnancy, seems to incite equally rigorous complaint and controversy, which is soon set to be voiced very publicly as the Republic of Ireland prepares to go to the polls on 25th May for an vote that could lift the country’s ban on abortion.
In Ireland, an abortion is not merely illegal; its prohibition is enshrined in the constitution as the Eighth Amendment, which recognises the equal right to life of both a woman and an unborn foetus. The change to the constitution, which came into force...