美国国家公共电台 NPR Ireland's Abortion Referendum Is Proving Deeply Divisive

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The people of Ireland vote tomorrow in a referendum that would open up the availability of abortion¹ - this, in a country that has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Opinion polls show that the vote is likely to be closely contested in that country, where a majority of people still describe themselves as Catholic. Here's reporter Alice Fordham from Dublin.

ALICE FORDHAM: In bright sunshine outside the elegant entrance to Trinity College Dublin, students hand out leaflets asking people to vote to repeal² the part of the Irish constitution that effectively bans abortion.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Hi. Please vote yes on Friday.

FORDHAM: They wear cheery colored sweaters with repeal written on them and big smiles. But one of them, Sinead Clark, says it's not been easy.

SINEAD CLARK: It's been very emotionally taxing, and especially even just today when people come up to you and say they hope you die or yell rude words at you - just, like, slut, things like that.

FORDHAM: For a historically socially conservative country, Ireland has made huge changes since the 1990s, making contraception widely available, then legalizing divorce and homosexuality, and more recently, allowing same-sex marriage. But the bitterness of this debate highlights that for some people, abortion is just different.

ANDREW O'REGAN: I'm very proud to be part of the new Ireland. I'm part of this progressive generation. I lecture in university, and I'm surrounded by university students every day.

FORDHAM: This medical doctor, Andrew O'Regan, wants to keep abortion available only in cases of extreme risk to the mother.

O'REGAN: Of course, human rights extend to everybody, not just the strong, and they're there to protect the weak. The most weak and the most voiceless are the babies in the womb.

FORDHAM: A lot of anti-abortion campaigners have made compassion³ their theme. A spokeswoman, Geraldine Martin, says the health minister, Simon Harris, should give more financial support to women who might end pregnancies⁴ because they can't afford to raise a child. Thousands of Irish women travel abroad to have abortions⁵ each year.

GERALDINE MARTIN: We've all known women who have felt that have no other option for abortion. We've all known women who've - they've felt vulnerable and lonely. And I think it is unforgivable that Simon Harris would propose abortion as a solution without having adopted any other measures to meet these women and their needs.

FORDHAM: But despite this emphasis on compassion, its opponents say this campaign is tainted⁶ by association with the body that has been most insistent⁷ on keeping abortion illegal - the Catholic Church. Sociology professor Ursula Barry says the church has a dark, misogynistic⁸ history in Ireland.

URSULA BARRY: The treatment of women outside marriage in Ireland over decades was really brutal⁹. Women were incarcerated¹⁰ in mother-and-baby homes, and they were forced to work in laundries until their babies were born, and then their babies were taken off them and put up for adoption¹¹ in Ireland, England and America.

FORDHAM: A series of investigations¹² into these church-run homes has established that this abuse was widespread. In the wake of that and other scandals, the church's authority has eroded¹³ here, and that probably has contributed to a decrease in opposition¹⁴ to abortion. Pro-abortion campaigner and author Una Mullally says this referendum feels like a moment of reckoning.

UNA MULLALLY: Facing up to this legacy¹⁵ that we have in a country that is so dark when it comes to dealing¹⁶ with women and trying to confront the trauma¹⁷ that exists on a national level with regards to how we talk about reproductive rights is difficult - you know? - and realizing how much work we have to do as a society to face up to those things - so it's been really quite testing, I think, for a lot of people.

FORDHAM: Mullally says her parents voted in favor of the constitutional amendment¹⁸ banning abortion in 1983, and this time around, they are campaigning to repeal it. For NPR News, I'm Alice Fordham in Dublin.

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