IRELAND is heading towards what may well be a historic moment, with its 25 May referendum on whether to relax the country鈥檚 near total ban on abortion.
Voters are being asked if they want to repeal a constitutional clause 鈥� the Eighth Amendment 鈥� voted into law by a referendum in 1983. It makes having an abortion, other than when the woman鈥檚 life is at risk, a crime punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
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It is one of the world鈥檚 most prohibitive such laws, and women who are made pregnant by rape or incest, or whose health is at risk but that risk isn鈥檛 deemed immediately life-threatening, are still liable for prosecution. Shockingly, a woman who seeks an abortion after rape could face a .
In addition, women carrying a fetus that is unlikely to survive 鈥� a traumatising experience. The options for ending a pregnancy are either travelling abroad, which is legal but costly, or an illegal, and hence potentially dangerous, abortion in Ireland.
A heated debate has been taking place, riddled with equivocal statements, misinformation, myth-making and obfuscation that confuses the issue. But from a scientific point of view, it is clear the evidence supports the case for more relaxed rules and addresses some of the key claims of those campaigning against this.
Those claims include the . A 2005 rounded up available studies on this question and concluded that a fetus is unlikely to experience pain before the third trimester.
Claims are also often made of a link between having an abortion and . Numerous studies refute this, as does the UK鈥檚 . It says that instances of women reporting depression after an abortion are 鈥渁 result of a pre-existing psychological condition鈥�.
Some campaigners say abortion is unsafe for women but this isn鈥檛 true either. A 2015 by the University of California, San Francisco, involving more than 50,000 women found the likelihood of complications from an abortion are low. As , having your wisdom teeth removed is riskier.
Last but not least is the idea that prohibiting abortion reduces instances of it. As made clear by , restricting abortion doesn鈥檛 lead to a lower abortion rate 鈥� it just makes it . A study by the found unsafe and illegal abortion constituted 13 per cent of maternal deaths globally.
Ireland鈥檚 prohibitive laws don鈥檛 belong in a society that values women鈥檚 bodies, women鈥檚 autonomy and women鈥檚 lives 鈥� and the science supports this. Let鈥檚 hope the electorate sorts fact from fiction.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲eigh the evidence鈥�
