Christine Howell planned to spend two years straight traveling and working in Australia from her arrival in Melbourne last December without breaking her trip to return home to Ireland.
The timing felt right. Howell, 27, had qualified as an optician but wasn't ready to settle. Australia represented a chance for adventure before it was "home time and time to be an adult."
But when the Irish government set May 25 as the date for an abortion referendum its prime minister has described as a "once-in-a-generation question," she had no hesitation in forking out 1,300 Australian dollars ($1,300.00) for a return ticket to go home to vote.