Majority-Catholic San Marino decriminalizes abortion, over 77% vote to abolish 1865 law in historic referendum

San Marino, a predominately Catholic microstate surrounded by Italian territory, has voted to legalize abortion, thus rendering obsolete a more than century-old law that punished women with imprisonment.

About 77.3% of those eligible to vote in the referendum answered yes to the question whether women should be allowed to “voluntarily terminate pregnancy until the twelfth week of gestation,” and thereafter if a woman’s health is jeopardized by the pregnancy, or if the fetus’ “abnormalities and malformations” pose “a serious risk to the physical or psychological health of the woman.”

Turnout was low, however – around 41% of the tiny state’s population of 35,000 cast their ballots on Sunday. Just over 60% of San Marino citizens currently living in the city-state turned out, while only around 5% of those living abroad took part.

The result of the referendum means that San Marino will be abolishing its strict abortion ban, enshrined in law as far back as 1865. The parliament will now work out a draft bill that would make abortion legal.

Commenting on the results, San Marino’s interior minister, Elena Tonnini, called it “a clear victory of those in favor [of abortion legalization].” Under the old law, San Marino women faced up to three years in prison, while doctors who performed abortion risked being jailed for up to six years.

Women seeking to terminate their pregnancies would travel to countries where the abortion laws are more liberalized, including Italy, rendering the 1865 law effectively useless. No one has ever been convicted under its provisions.

While abortion and the moral questions surrounding the procedure remain among the most hotly debated issues across the globe, the general trend has seen abortion laws gradually relaxed in nearly 50 countries over the past several decades, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Around 41% of women of reproductive age, or 700 million people, however, still live “under restrictive laws,” according to the advocacy group, while 90 million (5%) live in countries where abortion is banned under all circumstances.

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