Irish Voters Set To Liberalize Abortion Laws In Landslide, Exit Poll Signals

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish voters are set to liberalize one of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws by a margin of 68 percent to 32 percent, an exit poll showed on Friday, following one of the highest reported turnouts for a referendum.

Voters in the once deeply Catholic country were asked if they wish to scrap a prohibition that was enshrined in the constitution by referendum 35 years ago, and partly lifted in 2013 only for cases where the mother’s life is in danger.

The Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI exit poll surveyed 4,000 voters at 160 polling stations in every constituency of Ireland. A second exit poll will be released later on Friday with vote-counting to begin at 0800 GMT on Saturday.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Grant McCool)