A Yes vote in Irish referendum will mean abortion on demand, learning nothing from the lessons of GB

Both the life of the mother and the unborn child are protected.

Both lives matter.

But all of this could change on 25th May — a month from now — when voters in the Republic will decide whether to remove from law the equal right to life of a woman and her unborn child.

If the Eighth amendment in the constitution is repealed, human rights are abandoned in favour of choice.

Law matters because it shapes culture and even though the 1967 Abortion Act doesn’t provide abortion based on choice, UK government statistics show that in the 50 years since the ’67 Act was introduced, there have been almost nine million abortions.

Today that means there is one abortion for every four live births in England and Wales.

So although some women do travel to Great Britain and access abortion there, our different laws mean that in Ireland, north and south, we all know people alive today because our current laws say both lives matter.

It has now been independently verified that more than 100,000 people are alive today in Northern Ireland because we did not introduce the 1967 Act.

A similar number of lives have been saved by the Eighth amendment in the Republic over a shorter time, but reflecting the larger population.

My daughter is one of those 100,000.

While at university in Great Britain I faced a pregnancy crisis.

When my GP confirmed my pregnancy she asked me what I was going to do.

On hearing my reply, she told that I didn’t have to leave university because I could have an abortion.

It was that easy.

The 1967 Act had made abortion the default solution in pregnancy crisis and I realised then how very different law and culture here is.

Lord David Alton has commented that “there has never been a more dangerous time for the unborn child in Ireland.”

Repealing the Eighth amendment in the Republic will change law and culture on both sides of the border forever.

It is difficult to imagine a scenario were a government in Dublin, committed to unification wouldn’t provide abortions for women from the north, on an equal basis to women from the south.

Or will that depend on who holds an Irish passport?

We do not know, we have not been asked and we have been given no say.

The Dublin government is to be commended for one thing — they have not fudged this issue.

The decision is clear.

Vote ‘yes’ to allow abortion on demand— learning nothing from the lessons of Great Britain.

Vote ‘no’ to protect the most vulnerable in our society— because both lives matter.”

• Dawn McAvoy is one of the founders of Both Lives Matter, a movement of individuals and organisations seeking to reframe and rehumanise the abortion debate in Northern Ireland and beyond