--- title: Ireland Abortion Referendum—History Behind the 8th Amendment description: As Ireland considers repealing one of the world's strictest abortion laws, these are the four moments in modern Irish history to know about. canonical: https://time.com/5286910/ireland-abortion-laws-history/ author: Ciara Nugent article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-23T18:15:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:21:03.492Z article:section: History og:title: Ireland May Be About to Repeal One of Europe's Strictest Abortion Laws og:description: This is the history behind the referendum og:url: https://time.com/5286910/ireland-abortion-laws-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5905d088c0873528/6989314b929fad2c61bf0a5e/ireland-abortion-protest.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Protest for an access to abortion rights everywhere in Europe, took place in Brussels og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ireland May Be About to Repeal One of Europe's Strictest Abortion Laws twitter:description: This is the history behind the referendum twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5905d088c0873528/6989314b929fad2c61bf0a5e/ireland-abortion-protest.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ireland May Be About to Repeal One of Europe's Strictest Abortion Laws. 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Romy Arroyo Fernandez—NurPhoto / Getty Images  by [Ciara Nugent](https://time.com/author/ciara-nugent/)  ## Ciara Nugent May 23, 2018 6:15 PM UTC The eighth amendment to Ireland’s constitution, which faces repeal in a [national referendum](http://time.com/5280447/ireland-abortion-ban-referendum-vote/) on May 25, gives a mother and her unborn child an “equal right to life” and prevents any relaxation of the country’s near-total ban on abortion. This means that Ireland’s law on abortion is [among](http://www.pewresearch.org/interactives/global-abortion/) the strictest in Europe and the world, though it does make [some allowances](http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2013/act/35/enacted/en/pdf) for “risk of loss of life of pregnant woman.” Though Friday’s [contentious](http://time.com/5286335/ireland-abortion-referendum-brexit-online-ads/) referendum could be a major milestone in the history of abortion in Ireland, this is far from the first time the [majority-Catholic](http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp8iter/p8iter/p8rrc/) country has confronted the issue. The last 40 years have seen many twists and turns in both public attitudes and the law. Here are the key moments to know: ## 1983: The Eighth Amendment Referendum While deliberately terminating a pregnancy has been a criminal offense in Ireland since 1861, the modern debate can be traced back to the 1970s, a time when regulations about abortion were changing in many places. The U.K. had legalized abortion up to 28 weeks in 1967, and the U.S. Supreme Court had essentially legalized abortion in 1973 in [_Roe v. Wade_](http://time.com/5110210/roe-v-wade-anniversary-abortion/). Alarmed by the trend, conservative politicians and the Catholic Church wanted to preempt any attempt to loosen the Irish ban. They launched an active campaign to introduce a constitutional amendment to that purpose, which culminated in a referendum in 1983\. At that time, about 67%[ voted in favor](http://time.com/vault/issue/1983-09-19/page/62/) of the eighth amendment — the very amendment up for repeal this week. “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn,” the amendment reads, “and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” ## **1992: The X Case** Some groups continued to protest the ban in the years following the referendum, but it was not until 1992’s X Case that the abortion issue exploded back into the spotlight. A 14-year-old girl, known in the media only as X, was raped and, realizing she was pregnant, decided to travel to the U.K. to have an abortion. Her family told police about the plan, to find out if they could do a DNA test after the abortion to prove the paternity of the girl’s rapist. Instead, Ireland’s Attorney General blocked her from traveling abroad via an injunction. The girl became suicidal and her case quickly made it to the country’s Supreme Court, which [lifted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1992-03-09/page/45/) the injunction and ruled that abortions could take place where there was a real risk to the life of the mother, including from suicide. Since then, several attempts to remove suicide as grounds for abortion – including a referendum in 2002 – have failed. But the Supreme Court’s ruling did not make it into legislation for another 20 years. The X case did lead to some change, though. Two referendums in November 1992 made it legal to travel abroad to seek abortions and to share information about foreign abortion services within Ireland. Some 170,000 women are[ estimated](http://www.thejournal.ie/how-many-irish-travel-to-uk-for-abortions-3986043-May2018/) to have traveled out of Ireland for an abortion since 1980. ## **2012: Savita Praveen Halappanavar** The death of Savita Praveen Halappanavar in October 2012 once again brought global media attention to the country’s strict laws on abortion. Halappanavar, 31, was admitted to a hospital in Galway while having a miscarriage. She repeatedly asked staff to terminate her pregnancy but they refused, [telling](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/midwife-manager-regrets-using-catholic-country-remark-to-savita-halappanavar-1.1355895) her that Ireland was “a Catholic country.” She died at the hospital, from severe sepsis, five days after she had started miscarrying. The case angered many who had previously been apathetic about abortion law and reinvigorated the abortion-rights movement in Ireland. ## **2013: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act** The attention surrounding the Halappanavar case, as well as a 2010 ruling by the European Court of Human rights that Ireland was violating Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to enact the ruling from the 1992 X Case, spurred legislators to act. In 2013, they introduced the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, allowing abortions in circumstances where there was a risk to the life of the mother. Since then, the United Nations Human Rights Commission has [criticized](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/13/un-denounces-ireland-abortion-laws-as-cruel-and-inhumane-again) Ireland’s abortion laws as “cruel and inhumane.” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced the referendum on repealing the eighth amendment a few months after entering office in 2017. Polls suggest the result will be [close](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/irish-times-poll-public-favour-repeal-of-eighth-despite-slip-in-support-1.3467503). If the eighth amendment is repealed, Varadkar’s government will [likely](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/varadkar-backed-12-week-proposal-ahead-of-committee-report-1.3500744) legalize abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5286910/ireland-abortion-laws-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5286910/ireland-abortion-laws-history/"},"headline":"Ireland May Be About to Repeal One of Europe's Strictest Abortion Laws. 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