NPR

In Ireland, A Vote Is Expected This Spring On Expanding Abortion Rights

Ireland has already legalized divorce and same-sex marriage. Will abortion be next? In a May referendum, voters will weigh in on whether to allow unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
A strike took place in January at Trinity College Dublin to campaign for the legalization of abortion in Ireland.

At her home in Dublin, actress Tara Flynn recalls how, 12 years ago, she learned she was pregnant. It was not planned.

"I was 37. I was single. I wasn't working very much, and I didn't want to be a parent," Flynn says.

She didn't want to have a baby and give it up for adoption, either. But with abortion being illegal in Ireland, her only option at the time was to leave the country to end her pregnancy.

Seven years later, in 2013, Ireland began allowing abortions, but only if a pregnant woman's life is in danger. Otherwise it remains totally banned.

Ireland's abortion law is one of the strictest in the world. In Europe, only Malta and Vatican City have

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