The repeal of the Eighth passed by an unexpected margin, almost exactly two to one (1,429,981 Yes votes, 723,632 No). Even a quite secular Irish person, or an Irish national of non-Irish descent, is likely to put a huge quarrelling family in the background when asked to imagine somebody generically Irish. When the Eighth originally passed, the (pro-life) Irish Attorney-General of the day, Peter Sutherland, warned that the constitutional language was dangerously vague and high-flown. Halappanavar’s death exposed the contradictions in the Irish situation and imparted revolutionary energy to the Irish pro-choice movement. Irish girls “in trouble” have been hopping the Irish Sea to get legal abortions in the U.K. for 50 years.

Source: National Post May 28, 2018 18:51 UTC