This archive report was first published on 12 July 2019.
On March 19, 2020, the people of Gibraltar will head to the polls to decide the fate of their country's strict abortion laws.
Currently, abortion is punishable by life imprisonment in Gibraltar, a small peninsula attached to Spain with a population of around 30,000 people. However, this harsh penalty has not been applied in modern times.
The proposed changes to the law aim to allow abortion in cases where a woman's mental or physical health is at risk, such as in cases of rape or incest, and in cases of fatal foetal anomaly.
Abortion would remain illegal after the twelfth week of pregnancy, and doctors would be allowed to refuse to carry out the procedure if they morally object to it.
The Gibraltar government has decided to reform the law following a ruling by Britain's Supreme Court in June 2018 that Northern Ireland's abortion laws, which are almost identical to Gibraltar's, were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to a 2018 survey by the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), 77% of residents of the territory would support legalisation in certain circumstances.
