Voters in Gibraltar have endorsed legislative changes that will ease the British territory’s current ban on abortion.

Gibraltar is holding a referendum on whether to introduce exceptions to the British territory’s ban on abortion.

People enjoy a meal in a restaurant in Gibraltar, UK on Thursday March 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Javier Fergo)With its hospital free of COVID-19 patients and only one new coronavirus infection reported in a full week, the tiny British overseas territory of Gibraltar is allowing itself some prudent celebration. The territory of 33,000, located in the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, is ending a night-time curfew imposed three months ago to contain a surge of infections. Gibraltar's midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew ends Thursday, allowing bars and restaurants to stay open until 2 a.m. Gibraltar was hardest hit by the pandemic around Christmas, in a wave that caused most of its total tally of 4,271 cases and 94 deaths.

Backdropped by the Gibraltar rock, people walk along the stalls of a weekly market at the Spanish city of La Linea on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. Fears of disruptions following Britain's departure from the European Union were replaced by coronavirus-related restrictions on border traffic between Spain and Gibraltar on Monday, the first working day at the United Kingdom's only land border with the European mainland. In remarks over the weekend, Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo, said that the first batch of 5,000 vaccines would arrive in Gibraltar on Jan. 9. At least 200,000 people across the border in Spain, in the so-called Campo de Gibraltar subregion, are also under similar levels of restrictions. A major hurdle in the negotiations is whether the EU’s police force, Frontex, could be stationed in the British territory.

The deadline for Gibraltar remains Jan. 1, when a transitionary period regulating the short frontier between Gibraltar and Spain expires. Political will is needed.”Throughout the Brexit talks, Spain has insisted it wants a say on the future of Gibraltar. The Rock was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has never dropped its claim to sovereignty over it. More than 15,000 people live in Spain and work in Gibraltar, making up about 50% of Gibraltar’s labor force. The territory still remembers how, in 1969, Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco slammed shut the border in an attempt to wreck Gibraltar’s economy.