Vote on 25 May will offer citizens opportunity to overhaul one of world’s strictest regimes

Ireland will vote in a referendum on 25 May on liberalising its strict abortion laws, the government has confirmed, in an announcement that officially begins two months of campaigning.

Abortion has long been a divisive issue in the once stridently Catholic country. A complete ban was only lifted in 2013, when terminations were allowed in cases where the mother’s life was in danger.

Voters will be asked if they want to repeal article 40.3.3 – known as the eighth amendment – which since 1983 has given unborn foetuses and pregnant women an equal right to life, in effect enshrining a ban on abortion in the country’s constitution.

If Ireland votes in favour of repeal, the government has said it will introduce legislation permitting unrestricted abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Currently, terminations are only allowed when the life of the mother is at risk, and the maximum penalty for accessing an illegal abortion is 14 years in prison. The UN’s human rights committee has condemned the ban as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”.

The health minister, Simon Harris, and housing minister, Eoghan Murphy , signed the order to set the date of the historic vote after legislation allowing for it was passed in the Seanad, the second chamber of the Irish parliament. Polls will open at 7am on 25 May and close at 10pm.

“Whatever your views are on the proposals in the referendum, can I take this opportunity to encourage voters to go to their polling station during this 15-hour period on 25 May and have your say in the outcome of the referendum,” Murphy said.

Harris said: “It is really important that people do not sit at home and presume somebody else will make the decision for you. If you feel as strongly as we do that there needs to be change in this area, you need to come out and vote.”

Inside the Seanad one veteran pro-choice campaigner predicted “an intense campaign” over the next eight weeks.



Senator Ivana Bacik, who almost went to jail for distributing information about abortion clinics in England to Irish students in the 1990s, said opponents of reform were “in denial about the hypocrisy of Irish law”.



The prime minister, Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael, and the Fianna Fáil opposition leader, Micheál Martin, are backing a yes vote. Martin stunned his party by changing his previous position and supporting abortion reform.

The religious right in Ireland, particularly lay Catholic groups, see the referendum as their last chance to roll back 25 years of social liberal change.



In 2015 Ireland voted by a huge majority to legalise same-sex marriage, becoming the first country in the world to do so by popular vote. But both sides in the current debate believe that the vote this time will be considerably tighter.