Abortion Laws are the clearest indication that the government and the church view people as chattels and therefore need to control the power of procreation of said chattels.

I read it's all down to the urban/rural divide. The urbanites view people more as statistics. The rural communities tend to hold traditional notions, many of those church-inspired. The bottom line to be decided next Friday is whether we continue to force Irish women to have their abortions done in England or in their own country.

And however it goes, it will continue to divide for many years, regardless. Look at what has happened in the US... it's one of the biggest drivers of the religious voters. They brought us the current resident of the White House and look at the downstream results of that.