A new poll says there is overwhelming public support for changing Ireland’s law to allow to Abortion in cases when the mother’s life is in danger.  But it also shows majority support for extending Women’s Reproductive Rights beyond what the government is proposing.

And what the government is proposing is this:  Codifying the 1992 Irish Supreme Court judgment in the so-called “X Case”.  It established the constitutional right of Irish women to an abortion if a pregnant woman's life was at risk because of pregnancy, including the risk of suicide.

But legislation has been very slow in catching up and Women’s Reproductive Rights have been denied.  And the death last year of Savita Halappanavar highlighted the problem when she was not allowed to have a life-saving abortion and died after being told that Ireland was a “Catholic country”, meaning that the church’s opposition for many trumped the law.

That case inspired Ireland’s current government to propose changing the law, and polling taken this week proves the Irish people are behind it.

75 percent of the people responding to an Irish Times/Ipsos poll agree to the proposed changes; only 14 per cent said No and 11 per cent had no opinion.

 ven larger majorities also favored allowing abortion when the fetus’ life was at risk, and when the pregnancy was the result of rape or abuse.  The government is not proposing that, yet.