Irish MPs vote for abortions in life-saving cases

Ireland’s parliament today voted to allow abortions under certain conditions for the first time, after a gruelling debate that ran past midnight.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has provoked protest from both sides by pushing through a compromise that will allow abortion, but only when a woman’s life is in danger.

The 127-31 vote to approve the Bill followed weeks of demonstrations, with Mr Kenny facing protesters in skeleton masks outside his home.

Europe minister Lucinda Creighton was expelled from his Fine Gael party for voting against the new law. Four other FG members of parliament, out of a total of 76, have already been removed from the party for opposing the Bill. Ms Creighton said: “When it comes to something that is essentially a matter of life and death, I think it is not really possible to compromise.”

Outside parliament anti-abortion activists cheered deputies who voted against. Pro-abortion protester Eleanor White, 21, had mixed feelings. “It is the very, very bare minimum of a Bill, but at the same time it feels like the end of an era,” she said. “We are getting to the end of the role the Catholic Church has had in Ireland.”

The Church had urged parishioners to pressure their members of parliament to vote against the Bill.

The Irish supreme court ruled in 1992 that abortion should be permitted, after a 14-year-old rape victim challenged a constitutional amendment that aimed to ban abortion in all instances. However, legislation was only introduced after the death last year of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar, who was denied an abortion after a miscarriage.