Ireland to tackle strict abortion laws following gay marriage vote triumph

Dublin

WHEN Gerry and Gay Edwards watched the joy sparked by Ireland's vote to allow gay marriage last month, they did not see the same country that had forced them abroad to end a doomed pregnancy 14 years ago.

While Ireland is the only country to adopt gay marriage via a popular vote - a major shift in what was once a strongly Catholic and socially conservative society - its abortion laws remain among the most restrictive in the world. In 2001, Gerry and Gay's unborn son was diagnosed with anencephaly, a fatal abnormality where the skull is missing from above the eyebrows. Irish law criminalises abortion in cases of fatal foetal impairment, but rather than wait for the inevitable, the Edwards decided to induce labour. To do so, they had to cross the border into Northern Ireland, where such terminations are permitted.