The EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has taken a strong position in favour of abortion ahead of the planned Irish referendum on the issue.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Ms Vestager said: “It is never a thing that comes easy, but it gives you a right to your own body as a woman, to which you are otherwise deprived”. She added that it was “very important people can make their own decision within the family, when [they] want to have children”. In her native Denmark, abortion is available for any reason up to 12 weeks and thereafter for certain reasons and is paid for by the Government. “We think about it as a way to make sure that you are having children when you want to have children, and not when they come in a way when you haven’t chosen it yourself,” she said. Denying that the law harms the social fabric of the country, she said: “We find that the social fabric is made by taking responsibility for the choices you make; not denying people the right to free abortion, but affording them it with caution and the seriousness that people put into that decision”.