REFERENDUM ON TWENTY-FIFTH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
6 MARCH 2002

Below is a breakdown by constituency of the referendum on the government's proposal to tighten the republic's abortion laws; turnout was 43 per cent. The figures show a pronounced urban-rural split among voters, with the 'No' campaign having been strongest in Dun Laoghaire, where it polled 68 per cent of the vote, and the proposed amendment proving most popular in Donegal South West, with almost 67 per cent of voters endorsing it. This was the third referendum on abortion in the past twenty years. The ballot question put to voters was as follows:

Do you approve of the proposal to amend the Constitution as set out in the undermentioned Bill?
Twenty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy) Bill.
The referendum proposes to add two new sub-sections to Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution. It acknowledges the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn.
A new Article 40.3.4 states: "In particular, the life of the unborn in the womb shall be protected in accordance with the provisions of the Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy Act, 2002."
A new Article 40.3.5 proposes that this Act cannot be changed unless it is approved by the people in a new referendum.
The main provisions of the Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy Bill are:
The threat of suicide, based on the X case, will be removed as a ground for abortion;
Abortion will be defined as the intentional destruction by any means of unborn human life after implantation in the womb. (This definition presumes that the IUD and the morning-after pill will have legal protection);
A procedure carried out by a medical practitioner at an approved place - to be laid down by the Minister by regulation after the referendum - to prevent a real and substantial risk of the loss of a woman's life, other than by self-destruction, will not be regarded as an abortion;
Anyone aiding or procuring an abortion will be liable for up to 12 years' imprisonment.
The right to information and freedom to travel for an abortion are restated in the Bill.

RESULTS BY CONSTITUENCY