Sinead trained as a nurse. But it wasn’t until she was pregnant with Grace that she was forced to confront her own views about abortion. Up until that point, she had always considered herself pro-choice. When Sinead’s prenatal scans showed significant abnormalities, she says the medical team told her that her pregnancy would most likely not survive. They advised her to consider all of her options, including a termination in the UK. Further tests were carried out. She was told it was very likely that her child had Down’s syndrome. The news was upsetting and hard to digest. But it also gave Sinead hope her baby would live.

All I heard were the negatives. All I wanted to do was give her a chance." Sinead McBreen

The doctors were still convinced that the baby would not survive beyond 20 weeks. “All I heard were the negatives. All I wanted to do was give her a chance." Sinead’s pregnancy progressed normally and Grace was born in November 2014. Ireland’s laws on abortion, she says, gave her time to think. “I know the Eighth Amendment is the reason my daughter is with me today. “I looked at the scans on the screen and I could see this person. I felt she had rights.” A few months after Grace was born, Sinead attended her first anti-abortion rally. She’s left with worries over what legalising abortion might mean for children like Grace.

Ireland’s proposed new law would not allow a diagnosis of likely disability as a reason for an abortion after 12 weeks. And currently, it is rare to receive a Down’s syndrome diagnosis within 12 weeks - the time limit for unrestricted access for abortion that the government is proposing. But people like Sinead worry that improved testing will come and the vast majority of babies with Down’s would be aborted. She had a telling encounter while on holiday. When Sinead’s family visited Copenhagen on a short weekend break, she was struck by a stranger’s comment about Grace: “You don’t see it here anymore.” In 2006, Denmark was the first European country to introduce free first trimester screening for Down's syndrome and the majority of women there choose to receive it. After that, the number of infants born with Down’s syndrome decreased by about 50%, says Dr Ann Tabor, professor of foetal medicine in Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. In 2016, says Tabor, 135 cases of Down’s syndrome were detected through pre-natal screening. Of these, only four children were born. Down Syndrome Ireland described the Love Both literature as “disrespectful”, and called on campaigners to “stop exploiting children and adults with Down syndrome to promote their campaign views”.

The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, passes a Vote-No poster