Church and religion take back seat as a secular Ireland votes on abortion

Pro-Life and Pro-Choice posters are seen outside the home of Amy Callahan who received a fatal foetal diagnosis at 12 weeks into her pregnancy and travelled to Liverpool for a termination in Dublin, Ireland, May 7, 2018. Picture taken May 7, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

NENAGH/CORK, Ireland (Reuters) - Three decades after Ireland introduced one of the world's only constitutional bans on abortion, the Church that was so pivotal in securing the law's passage finds itself a minor player in the now mainly secular battle to repeal it.

A vote on May 25 on whether to scrap the 1983 ban is the latest referendum to gauge just how much has changed in Ireland, once one of Europe's most socially conservative and staunchly Catholic countries.