This Friday Ireland faces a historic vote on whether to reform the country's abortion laws, which are among the most restrictive in Europe. Currently, women in Ireland who need an abortion are forced to travel abroad - usually England - or may resort to clandestine termination of their pregnancies.

Worldwide, an estimated 25 million unsafe abortions occur each year, even though abortion is a simple and safe procedure when properly performed. Unsafe abortion occurs most frequently in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Banning abortion does not eliminate the procedure, but it does make abortion more likely to be unsafe.

In fact, research shows that abortion occurs just as frequently in countries where abortion is prohibited or highly restricted as where it is broadly legal. According to a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute more and more women and couples worldwide want to have smaller families, and to control the timing and spacing of births, but many are unable to do so.