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Al Jazeera reports
Polls have closed in an Irish referendum on abortion that could represent a change in the path of a country that was once one of Europe's more socially conservative.
Voters turned out in large numbers on [May 25] to have their say on whether to repeal the country's Eighth Amendment, which outlaws abortion by giving equal rights to the unborn.
An exit poll, conducted for the Irish Times by Ipsos/MRBI, suggested that the country voted by a landslide margin to change the constitution so that abortion can be legalised.
The vote to repeal the constitutional ban was predicted to win by 68 percent to 32 percent, according to the poll of 4,000 voters, the Irish Times said.
[...] If the proposal to repeal the Eighth Amendment is defeated on [May 25], the country will not have a second referendum and it could be another 35 years before voters have their say on the matter again, [Prime Minister Leo] Varadkar said.
[...] 78 percent of the Irish population is Catholic
[...] Thousands of people living abroad returned home to vote. Ireland is one of the few countries in the European Union that does not allow those abroad to vote via post or in embassies.
Those away for less than 18 months remain eligible to vote at their former local polling station. Those living on the Atlantic islands cast their ballot a day early to help prevent delays in transportation and counting the ballot papers.
When the constitutional amendment to instate the ban was voted on in 1983, 66.9 percent voted "yes," and 33.1 percent voted "no".
Widely reported, including:
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/29/irish-abortion-vote-remarkable-political-victory-leo-varadkar
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/world/europe/northern-ireland-abortion.html
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44256152
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday May 30 2018, @09:48AM
Tosh! You seem to not understand how a market works. I bet you think a market has a buyer and a seller. Sorry, but it doesn't - it has competing parties A_n which are willing to provide product or service X in return for product or service Y, and competing parties B_m which are willing to provide product or service Y in return for product or service X.
You think that market forces will drive the "price" down, such that the "sellers" have to provide the greatest amount of product or service to the "buyers" for the lowest "price", but you've got the two parties confused. Market forces are driving the "price" up - the "buyers" are the medical providers, who are demanding the largest amount of $$$ off the supplier of that resource, the ill. And because it's a free market, and dollars are very much a commmodity item, those suppliers have to buckle to this market pressure.
Markets find equilibrium - that doesn't mean there's pressure one way or the other - it means there's pressure in both directions. You're only seeing one of those directions, and completely overlooking the other.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves