We’re at a fork in the road - The Eighth Amendment

The decision at Monday evening’s cabinet meeting to hold a referendum on whether the Eighth Amendment to our Constitution should stand or not gives the people of Ireland a fourth opportunity to vote on the deeply divisive, polarising issue of abortion in 35 years.

Access to legal abortion, or the denial of that opportunity, is one of the great dividing lines of our time — and not just in Ireland. Some people regard abortion as a routine procedure with the protected status of a human right despite the ready availability of many safe forms of contraception. Others see abortion as an abomination and an affront to the great, and what they see as the unquestionable, gift of life.