Ireland quietly comes to terms with dramatic change after abortion vote

Irish people paid homage on Sunday to an Indian immigrant woman whose death inspired a historic vote to repeal Ireland's strict abortion laws while the Catholic Church rued the outcome saying it showed indifference to its teachings.

In a referendum on Friday, the once deeply Catholic nation voted to scrap a prohibition on abortion by a margin of two-to-one, a landslide victory that astonished campaigners as citizens of every age and background demanded the change they had spent decades fighting for. 

The vote overturns a law which, for decades, has forced over 3,000 women to travel to Britain each year for terminations that they could not legally have in their own country. "Yes" campaigners had argued that with pills now being bought illegally online abortion was already a reality in Ireland.

Hundreds of people on Sunday continued to leave flowers and candles at a large mural in Dublin of Savita Halappanaar, the 31-year-old Indian whose death in 2012 from a septic miscarriage after being refused a termination spurred lawmakers into action.

Katy Gaffney, a 24-year-old baker who traveled home to Dublin from Berlin to vote, stood silently in front of the makeshift memorial crying.

"I am relieved but devastated that it had to come to this," she said.

Others, many with tears in their eyes, pinned messages to the wall. One read: "I'm so sorry this happened to you before the country woke up. My vote was for you." Another: "I'm sorry we let you down. It won't be in vain."

"It's not a high. It's more of a relief," said Lynda Cosgrave, a 35-year-old legal associate, wearing the black sweatshirt with 'Repeal' in white that become the symbol of the youthful "Yes" campaign.

"I thought when I came in last night it would be jubilant, but it was a bit down. It's a bit sad. I don't think we ever thought it would actually happen."

The campaign was defined by women publicly sharing their painful experiences of going abroad for procedures, a key reason why all but one of Ireland's 40 constituencies voted "Yes"

The government of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who campaigned to repeal the laws, will begin drafting legislation in the coming week to allow abortions with no restriction up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy by the end of the year.

Many lawmakers who campaigned for a "No" vote said they would not try to block the bill.

(Reuters)