2018 Irish 8th Amendment (Abortion) Referendum

[danny]

According to the RTE poll:
Women: 72.1% yes
Men 65.9% yes

[heatcharger]

I get that but abortion just isn't a topic over which people should be celebrating.

Oh so the good people of Ireland who voted Yes ought to see this 2-1 margin in their favor and subsequently mourn over it. Give me a break dude.

For the record YE, if you don't believe abortion should be legal in Ireland, then it would be totally proper to be upset by this result. But I can't understand the moral quibbling of believing abortion should be made legal, but should not be celebrated when made legal.

[MAINEiac4434]

Cracking open a Guinness tonight. Well done, Ireland.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What people need to realise is that the present system is essentially a calculated hypocrisy: a total ban on abortion in Ireland has been made possible and workable to a large extent because of the ease of travel to Great Britain. Indeed the right to travel to other countries to have an abortion is also in the constitution...

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

What people need to realise is that the present system is essentially a calculated hypocrisy: a total ban on abortion in Ireland has been made possible and workable to a large extent because of the ease of travel to Great Britain. Indeed the right to travel to other countries to have an abortion is also in the constitution...

While I don't doubt there is hypocrisy involved, it's still better to have that arrangement than a one, say, along the lines of the United States...

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

B&A Exit poll-

Yes: 68%
No: 32%

Completely in line with the Irish Times

[Blair]

Surely the fact that 70% of the population in a country that currently has a ban on abortion voted to get rid of it shows just how ridiculous the current law is?

And yes, this is something that should be celebrated.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Surely the fact that 70% of the population in a country that currently has a ban on abortion voted to get rid of it shows just how ridiculous the current law is?

And yes, this is something that should be celebrated.

The choice is between a bottle of odd-tasting milk, and a glass with a mix of water and urine. I'd prefer the milk any day...

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Vote by Exit Poll-

Irish Times: 68/32% YES

B&A: 68/32% YES

RTE: 69/31% YES

I wonder why so many more people voted Yes for abortion than Yes for gay marriage...

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Vote by Exit Poll-

Irish Times: 68/32% YES

B&A: 68/32% YES

RTE: 69/31% YES

I wonder why so many more people voted Yes for abortion than Yes for gay marriage...

My guess is that the people who want it to be legal for rape but for no other reason are a pretty strong number and voted Yes.  I don't think a constitutional amendment directly legalizing abortion on-demand, even if just for the first term, would have passed.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

So pretty much, the polls that showed results that excluded the undecideds were right this entire time.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Literally completely amazed. I was worrying about this vote for months and this happens. Beyond incredible.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Literally completely amazed. I was worrying about this vote for months and this happens. Beyond incredible.

Literally me, and I'm not even an Irish citizen. Anyways, congratulations!

[CatoMinor]

Congrats Ireland on joining the civilized world by putting choice and those progressive feels over lives.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

That is actually one of the questions that will be asked following the result if this is anything close to true: the No campaign moved in a very... distasteful way towards the end of the campaign and if that exit poll is anything close to the result you would have to think that it demonstrates that the No campaign strategy heavily backfired.  It also demonstrates the power of a positive message in a referendum campaign; in the general area the referendum campaigns that won or did significantly better than they were expected to have been the ones that managed to broadly campaign in a positive light; while those who went negative all of the time tended to struggle.

I still don't believe that it will break the 61% that the Marriage referendum got but even that would be an impressively large figure and demonstrates the overwhelming change that has happened in the country - remember that its only been twenty years since Divorce was legalised and that was as close a referendum as you could get.

What was distasteful?

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

That is actually one of the questions that will be asked following the result if this is anything close to true: the No campaign moved in a very... distasteful way towards the end of the campaign and if that exit poll is anything close to the result you would have to think that it demonstrates that the No campaign strategy heavily backfired.  It also demonstrates the power of a positive message in a referendum campaign; in the general area the referendum campaigns that won or did significantly better than they were expected to have been the ones that managed to broadly campaign in a positive light; while those who went negative all of the time tended to struggle.

I still don't believe that it will break the 61% that the Marriage referendum got but even that would be an impressively large figure and demonstrates the overwhelming change that has happened in the country - remember that its only been twenty years since Divorce was legalised and that was as close a referendum as you could get.

What was distasteful?

They ran a very controversial and sloppy campaign. There was an incident where a few pro-lifers were hanging graphic posters of torn up fetuses in public, which caused an uproar from nearly all sides of the debate and actually prompted condemnation from the No camp in order to distance themselves.

Besides that, they really didn't have a message, or a way to appeal to the undecided votes. All they did was scream "dead babies!" and rely on the "catholic conscience" of the people to go their way, whereas the Yes campaign relied more on the facts and sympathized with people who might be affected by the need for an abortion under any possible circumstance.

.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Congrats Ireland on joining the civilized world by putting choice and those progressive feels over lives.

lol
>"progressive"
>"civilized world"=somehow equaling devaluing the life of the unborn
>"choice"

Everything wrong with the pro-choice position, in a nutshell!

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Congrats Ireland on joining the civilized world by putting choice and those progressive feels over lives.

lol
>"progressive"
>"civilized world"=somehow equaling devaluing the life of the unborn
>"choice"

Everything wrong with the pro-choice position, in a nutshell!

... I believe he was being sarcastic.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Congrats Ireland on joining the civilized world by putting choice and those progressive feels over lives.

lol
>"progressive"
>"civilized world"=somehow equaling devaluing the life of the unborn
>"choice"

Everything wrong with the pro-choice position, in a nutshell!

... I believe he was being sarcastic.

If that's the case, I apologize.
I find the use of those talking points, when used in favor of killing the unborn, to be total garbage.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

That is actually one of the questions that will be asked following the result if this is anything close to true: the No campaign moved in a very... distasteful way towards the end of the campaign and if that exit poll is anything close to the result you would have to think that it demonstrates that the No campaign strategy heavily backfired.  It also demonstrates the power of a positive message in a referendum campaign; in the general area the referendum campaigns that won or did significantly better than they were expected to have been the ones that managed to broadly campaign in a positive light; while those who went negative all of the time tended to struggle.

I still don't believe that it will break the 61% that the Marriage referendum got but even that would be an impressively large figure and demonstrates the overwhelming change that has happened in the country - remember that its only been twenty years since Divorce was legalised and that was as close a referendum as you could get.

What was distasteful?

They ran a very controversial and sloppy campaign. There was an incident where a few pro-lifers were hanging graphic posters of torn up fetuses in public, which caused an uproar from nearly all sides of the debate and actually prompted condemnation from the No camp in order to distance themselves.

Besides that, they really didn't have a message, or a way to appeal to the undecided votes. All they did was scream "dead babies!" and rely on shaming people into voting no, whereas the Yes campaign relied more on the facts and sympathized with women in general.

.

I followed the "No" campaign fairly closely and I don't find that characterization at all accurate.  Yes there was an emphasis on the moral gravity of taking children's lives.  There was also arguments for :
- Not trusting the Oireachtas with complete latitude over abortion laws
- Valuing the lives of the disabled, who are often targets of abortion in other countries
- Arguing that the 8th amendment does not endanger women's lives and that any fixes to policy needed to protect women's health can be made through legislation
- Investment in mothers' needs and urgently needed healthcare in other areas rather than putting those funds toward providing abortion
etc

[MAINEiac4434]

Congrats Ireland on joining the civilized world by putting choice and those progressive feels over lives.

Quelle libertarien

[YE]

I get that but abortion just isn't a topic over which people should be celebrating. It's a disgusting procedure but also a necessary evil.

Nah, this is a result worth celebrating because abortion is good, in the same way every other medical procedure that allows people to live better lives is good.

I don't necessarily agree. Limiting unwanted pregnancies and births is what is good. Abortion should be a means of last resort, and should be heavily restricted after viability.  

[Devout Centrist]

68%? Holy crap. Have these exit polls been off before?

Apparently the Irish are so happy about Ireland that the solution for Ireland is to kill off the Irish.

What's next, Thanos killing off half because you've got too many Irish?

Still waiting for the Moore campaign to find those extra 20k votes, Ben?

[Tender Branson]

A good day for women's rights.



Irish voters made an educated decision on a very controversial topic and showed the middle-finger to the Catholibans and their American fundie aiders and abettors.

We still need to wait and see what the actual results are like, because people often vote differently in the voting booths than telling exit pollsters. But I still don't think YES will drop below 60% in the actual count.

I now hope that parliament passes a (not too liberal) abortion law, allowing it until the 10th week or so, where the clump of cells in the woman's body is not a lifeform yet with no brain developed.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Tendor, although your prediction was still 10 points off, you were the closest lol.