“…This pressure, combined with legal obligations from the European Court of Human Rights’ rulings and discontent with the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 (2013) , led abortion to become an important issue in the 2016 general election and resulted in Fine Gael’s commitment to hold a Citizens’ Assembly, eventually followed by a referendum on the 8 th Amendment (Field, 2018; see de Londras, 2020, this issue). When the referendum was held in May 2018, the electorate voted to repeal by 66.4 per cent to 33.6 per cent, with a turnout of 64.13 per cent (Field, 2018). Exit polls from the referendum revealed that for 62 per cent of voters the ‘right to choose’ was the most important issue in their vote and that 75.2 per cent had ‘always’ known how they would vote, while for only 12 per cent their religious views had been the most important factor in their vote (McShane, 2018, p. 621).…”