Today, Ireland will vote on repealing the Eighth Amendment to its constitution. The Repeal the Eighth campaign opposes the amendment because it grants an unborn fetus a right to life equal to that of the mother. A “Yes” vote on Friday would open the way to an extension of legal abortion, meaning Irish women would no longer be forced to travel abroad for the procedure. While in much of the world we see moves to limit women’s reproductive rights, in Ireland pro-choice campaigners are on the advance.

The referendum falls on the anniversary of Italy’s 194 Law, which passed in 1978 and legalized the voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP). Yet four decades later, Italian women’s right to self-determination remains on shaky ground. The 194 Law is undermined by the presence of a vocal anti-choice movement, the neoliberal restructuring of the health system, and the uncontrolled spread of a physicians’ “conscientious objection” movement.

Since November 2016 Italy’s Non una di meno movement — part of the global Ni una menos movement — has taken to the streets to defend and extend women’s bodily autonomy. Our forty-year experience with the 194 Law has much to say to reproductive justice movements around the world. Italian women’s battles over the last four decades show that any abortion law has to be founded on women’s freedom of choice — or it won’t work.