Irish await abortion poll result

Nuns, from left to right, Sister Damien, Sister Anne and Sister Immaculata, leave a Dublin polling station, after voting

DUBLIN, Republic of Ireland -- Votes are being counted in a referendum that could tighten Ireland's abortion legislation.

Wednesday's national referendum was the fifth on the issue in the last 20 years. The result is expected on Thursday.

The government wants to close a loophole in the law that allows women to have an abortion if they are suicidal.

An 1861 law makes abortion in Ireland illegal, but exceptions are made if the mother's life is at risk. A yes vote will restrict that to a real and substantial medical risk -- rather than a mental risk.

Prime Minister Bertie Ahern cast his vote on Wednesday morning. Although the government, along with the Roman Catholic church leaders, backs the yes campaign and most of the opposition parties are behind a no vote, Ahern said it was a matter of individual conscience.

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"It is a moral, ethical and religious issue and for all those reasons people will have differing views. It is not like a normal campaign and it is very hard to know how people will vote," he said.

About 2.8 million of Ireland's 3.8 million population were eligible to vote

In 1992 a ruling of the Irish Supreme Court added suicide to the definition of medical risk following the case of a 14-year-old rape victim judged to be in danger of taking her life if she did not terminate the pregnancy. She was allowed to go to England for an abortion.

Ahern casts his vote in the abortion referendum in Drumcondra, Dublin

The issue provokes fierce emotions in the strongly-Catholic country. Every year thousands of women go abroad, mainly to England, for an abortion, where it has been legal since 1967.

The number has been rising over the last few years and was estimated at 7,000 in 2001.

In Ireland conviction for having an abortion, or aiding or procuring an abortion, can carry a jail sentence of up to 12 years, although women are free to go abroad for a termination.