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posted by janrinok on Tuesday May 29 2018, @07:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the generational-attitude-shift dept.

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:


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @11:08PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @11:08PM (#685984)

    Why not support UBI or a one-time lump-sum payment contingent on sterilization?

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 30 2018, @12:44AM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday May 30 2018, @12:44AM (#686021)

    Why not support UBI or a one-time lump-sum payment contingent on sterilization?

    Because the people who are opposed to abortion funding and welfare are also opposed to UBI. It's a lot easier to get welfare passed than a UBI.

    The sterilization thing is generally considered eugenics and unethical, including by the people who are opposed to abortion funding. In fact, if anything, the anti-abortion people are probably even more opposed to sterilization than the pro-abortion people.

    The problem is that the anti-abortion people simply have no realistic solutions for society's problems. Their entire solution consists of "pray" and "don't have premarital sex". The former doesn't do anything and the latter is unrealistic and doesn't work (as proven by teen pregnancy rates in places where only abstinence is taught in public schools). They don't want to pay anything to deal with social problems, such as public education (they consistently vote to defund schools), so we wind up with abortion being necessary. They'll preach about adoption, but none of them want to adopt the kids produced by the sector of society that has the most abortions.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 30 2018, @10:35AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 30 2018, @10:35AM (#686209)

      They also have a preferred way out of the problems they create: they are all for longer incarcerations (effectively, slave labor) and capital punishment (public death spectacles).
      They're freaking Ancient Romans!