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- THE WEEK, Page 25WORLDNot on Ireland's Soil
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- Voters reject abortion at home as they reproach Fianna Fail
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- In Ireland the matter of choice is not so much one of whether
- to permit abortion as where to permit it. The country's blanket
- ban, last reaffirmed by voters in 1983, came under new scrutiny
- in March, when the Supreme Court allowed a 14-year-old rape
- victim to have her pregnancy medically terminated in Britain. In
- a three-part referendum, voters overwhelmingly decided to
- legalize that previously unlawful option by permitting women to
- travel abroad for abortions and obtain information about how to
- do so. But a constitutional amendment allowing abortions to be
- performed in Ireland in cases where a mother's life is
- threatened was roundly defeated because both pro-choice and
- antiabortion forces decided to oppose it.
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- In the general polling, the long-ruling Fianna Fail Party
- suffered its worst setback in 50 years, losing at least 10 of
- its 77 seats in the 166-member Dail, while the big winner was
- the Labour Party, which more than doubled its parliamentary
- roster. It remained unclear whether the new coalition government
- will be headed by Fianna Fail's Albert Reynolds, the current
- Prime Minister, or Labour's Dick Spring, now Ireland's most
- popular politician.
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