Irish vote in abortion referendum

7,000 women go to Britain each year for abortions

Voters in the Republic of Ireland are going to the polls in a referendum on the country's abortion laws.

It is the fifth time in less than 20 years that Irish citizens have been asked to vote on the issue.

Ireland already has strict laws preventing abortion in most cases, and the proposal put forward by the Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, would further restrict a woman's right to the procedure.

If passed, the amendment would mean that the possibility of a woman committing suicide would no longer be acceptable grounds for her having an abortion.

Bertie Ahern: Depends on independent pro-life MPs

Whatever the result of the referendum, it seems unlikely to stop about 7,000 women leaving every year to terminate their pregnancy in Britain.

Many believe the Irish Republic's abortion laws are confusing.

In 1983, the people voted to insert an amendment into the constitution giving equal rights to life to the pregnant mother and unborn child.

But in 1992, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that a suicidal 14-year-old rape victim, known as X, was entitled to a termination in Ireland.

However she did not get it in Ireland and had to travel to England.

This was because successive Irish governments failed to legislate for the Supreme Court ruling.

Dana Rosemary Scallon argues referendum will not protect unborn

Doctors prepared to carry out the termination had no legal certainty that they would not be prosecuted.

Pro-life groups have long campaigned against the X ruling and the referendum is their latest attempt to overturn it.

Mr Ahern's minority coalition is dependent on the support of independent pro-life members of parliament.

But the campaign has revealed great divisions within the pro-life camp and showed what a legally complex issue abortion in Ireland is.

While the powerful Catholic Church is urging people to back the government proposal, others like the former Eurovision song contest winner Dana Rosemary Scallon, argue that the referendum will not protect the unborn.

That is because human life is defined as not from the moment of conception but several days later at the moment of implantation.