British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a showdown with ministers and lawmakers in her Conservative party after refusing to back reform of Northern Ireland's highly restrictive abortion rules after neighboring Ireland's vote to liberalize its laws.
Voters in Ireland, a once deeply Catholic nation, backed the change by two-to-one, a far higher margin than any opinion poll in the run-up to the vote had predicted.
The prime minister is facing calls from within her Cabinet to scrap the strict rules on abortion in Northern Ireland and bring the law in line with the rest of the United Kingdom.