More: Abortion ban vote chance to throw off oppressing legacy of Catholic Ireland

Related: Ireland to be tested by abortion vote on whether to overturn near-total ban

John Aidan Byrne, 58, an Irishman who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years and runs a group called Irish Pro-Life USA, said that doing away with the ban would mean "fewer protections" for his friends and family in Ireland. The country’s leaders support a “yes,” an outcome that would repeal a 1983 constitutional amendment requiring authorities to treat a fetus and its mother as equals under the law. But others viewed the vote as evidence that Ireland, for years held back by traditional voices in the church, was embracing tolerance and progressiveness as well as continuing down a path of liberalization after national votes in recent years that ushered in legalizing contraception, divorce, homosexuality and same-sex marriage. “I feel like I’ve waited all of my adult life to have a say on this.”

Vera Rooney cast her ballot at the same polling place. “It is a hard decision but I just feel I don’t have the right to take life,” she said. “I think life is sacred and for that reason I had to vote no.”

The referendum will decide whether the eighth amendment of the constitution is repealed or stays in place. The amendment reads: “The state acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” In 1992, it was written into legislation what women could travel abroad to seek terminations. Abortion in largely Catholic Ireland is illegal except in cases when the woman’s life is in danger, and several thousand Irish women travel each year to get abortions in neighbouring Britain. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar called the result the culmination of a “quiet revolution.”

“The people have spoken,” said Varadkar, a medical doctor who campaigned for repeal in the historic referendum. “A high turnout I think would be to the advantage to the ‘yes’ campaign, and obviously the upside of a good sunny day in Ireland is that people come out to vote.”

Results are not expected until Saturday afternoon or evening. “The people have said that we want a modern constitution for a modern country, that we trust women and we respect them to make the right decision and the right choices about their health care.”

As a result of the vote, Ireland's government will now seek to pass legislation that allows abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Irish citizens vote in a referendum on the proposed Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018 to repeal the 1983 Eighth Amendment constitutional ban on abortion by 66.4% to 33.6%.