Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has announced that a referendum will be held on the Eighth Amendment of the Irish constitution, which gives a mother and her unborn child equal rights to life.
"I will be advocating a 'Yes' vote," Varadkar said at a press conference at government buildings after a special cabinet meeting Monday evening.
A "Yes" vote in the referendum, which would be held at the end ofMay, would make way for legislation for legal abortion in Ireland.
"We have an abortion in Ireland, but it is unsafe, unregulated and unlawful," Varadkar said.
Thousands of Irish women already travel abroad for abortion or obtain pills that are taken without medical supervision, he said, adding that Ireland could not continue to "export our problems and import our solutions" on abortion.
The cabinet agreed that the government would ask people if they wanted to retain the Eighth Amendment or to repeal it, and then add anew clause to the constitution giving parliament the power to legislate for abortion.
Abortion in Ireland would be "safe, legal and rare" in the situation provided for by parliament, Varadkar said.
The Eighth Amendment, enshrined in the predominantly-Catholic country's constitution in 1983, can only be removed by referendum.
Last December, the all-party parliamentary committee recommended that the amendment is repealed and proposed that terminations without restriction should be allowed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Those campaigning to repeal the law have argued that medical teams are prevented from carrying out terminations even when a pregnancy endangers a woman's life.
There were nationwide protests in 2012 after the death of SavitaHalappanavar in a Galway hospital. Halappanavar died of septicemia after being refused an abortion while miscarrying at 17 weeks on the grounds that there was still a foetal heartbeat.
Dublin (dpa)
