Repeal then what?

The Taoiseach will be campaigning for repeal of the Eighth. But Tánaiste Simon Coveney’s contradictory views are indicative of the confusion about what a post-repeal landscape might actually look like

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Simon Coveney both support repeal, but hold very different views on what system should replace it

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is a politician who perfectly encapsulates the seismic change in mainstream political thinking on Irish abortion law. Eight years ago, outlining his opposition to abortion in cases of rape, he remarked: “It isn’t the child’s fault that they’re the child of rape.”

Last Monday, in outlining the case for liberalisation of the law, he said: “Children get pregnant as a result of rape and in Ireland it is currently the ...