Ireland's voters will decide in late May on whether to lift a constitutional ban on most abortions, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said today. Varadkar spoke after a special meeting of the Cabinet to agree on details of a referendum on the eighth amendment to Ireland's constitution.<br/><br/>Varadkar says voters will be asked whether they want to retain the amendment, or repeal it and hand responsibility for legislating on abortion to parliament. <br/><br/>The 1983 amendment commits authorities to defend equally the right to life of a mother and an unborn child, giving this largely Roman Catholic nation the strictest abortion restrictions in Europe.<br/><br/>Abortion is legal only in rare cases when a woman's life is in danger.Several thousand Irish women travel each year for abortions in neighbouring Britain. <br/><br/>