I thought the turnout would be a bit higher than 64.1% though.
Turnout for the SSM referendum was 60.52%, which is lower than I thought it was. (All these 60+ percentages can mess with your memory)
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I thought the turnout would be a bit higher than 64.1% though.
Turnout for the SSM referendum was 60.52%, which is lower than I thought it was. (All these 60+ percentages can mess with your memory)
FG committing to legislating this fairly soon. I don't think the other parties will stand in their way either, after the size of the majority.
Interesting to see if it will be an issue come election time, and if so, how the different parties play it.
I suspect the legislation will go through without to much difficulty. Even though 1 in 3 people was against repeal, I very much doubt that the only party in favour of retention, ReNua, will gain many of those votes. That was their best chance ever to put their name in front of the people but I never heard a peep out of them or if they did sound off, I must have had a bad dose of wax in my ear at the time. The economy by and large determines votes (but not as much as Enda thought) and the HSE crisis has damaged the Government so if there was an election in the morning I wouldn't expect much of a change. Once the abortion legislation goes through it was be old hat until the request for the period to be extended to 21 weeks is promoted and pushed and it will all kick off again but not to the same extent.
If Declan Ganly and a few cronies (or a better version of him) together with a few indos (Mattie etc) were to form a new party specifically to "represent" the people who feel disenfranchised by all the other parties there could be a market for them.
There has to be room for a party when a third of the voters have literally no one who represents their view.
Fianna Fail would be the big loser if that party was formed I reckon
For the last five or so years I hear this constant "Room for a centre-right/full-on right wing conservative party" stuff, but the only people who ever bothered their hole to form one got rejected by voters wholesale. Besides, there isn't a constituency in the country that doesn't have some Independent or micro-party candidate (Christian Solidarity anyone?) of that persuasion, but they always go nowhere. That 1 in 3 will hold their nose and vote for their FF or FG or Independent TD candidate, just like they did after SSM.
Good to have the campaign over. It wasn't a quiet revolution- Leo just took a while to listen.
The Yes campaign were good, focussed on the stories of affected women which was hugely effective. Where to even start with the No campaign- they were absolutely dreadful both tactically and morally. Got desperate from a few weeks out and just crumbled completely into nastiness, looking like the loons most of us always suspected them to be.
Martin may have saved FFs bacon as they would have looked a very 'No' party without him. Renua were active in some parts of the country but no one cares.
Must get my Seanad vote sorted at new address so I can help get rid of that reptile Mullen.
Its a celebrity world , the likes of Christian Solidarity have no hope ,
But if someone credible came out swinging it would be interesting,
Its now or never.
The Abortion thing is dead forever even if a new party put it on the agenda the % in favour of repeal means FG or whomever else couldn't backtrack
Why would there be a demand for 21 weeks?
It's set at 12 in the prpposed legislation and there has been no indication from anywhere that women are unhappy with having that choice? In fact I would sincerely doubt this is ever going to be an issue again in my lifetime.
Well they have nobody who represents that particular one of their views. I presume if Declan Ganley had to choose between pro-choice Fine Gael and a pro-life party who propose massive tax hikes and wealth distribution he'd support FG, etc. If people are that vexed about abortion they will find representation.
I don't think "proof" is possible here but I'd tend to agree that Ireland will follow the same trajectory as USA UK that once it is introduced in a "limited" fashion it is constantly chipped away at to increase the reasons by using every hard case from then on.
Leaving completely aside whether you are a yes or a no I think that's just accepting reality
I think the same - that the limit will be left alone for a number of years, then get moved. But I think that will happen very slowly, and will also be affected (and limited) by any medical improvements that result in earlier fetal viability.
I would imagine that FG will want to legislate for it along the lines of what they outlined pre-referendum, as they have a now mandate to do so, then not go near it again for a long time, and I'd guess the other big parties would feel much the same.
In the future, the debate might see the current Save the 8th advocates arguing that the result of the referendum meant 12 weeks and no more.
I don't think, though, that it would be the 'hard cases' that would shape the future changes. If they are properly legislated for now, it wouldn't need to be such an issue in the future.
I don't really understand your point - the No campaign had plenty of stories from women who thought about seeking an abortion, but after a lot of thought or soul-searching, in the end decided to have their child instead.
Be that a 'crisis' pregnancy because of their age and lack of money and maturity, or because there was an indication that the foetus would not survive, or would have a disability, and so on.
It was a fairly common theme I thought, - in response to the Repeal side's stories of women who did have an abortion in such circumstances, the No side (one of its various strands anyway) had stories of woman who went through similar experiences but decided to have their baby anyway.
I thought it was one of their smarter bits of campaigning - take the opposition's argument and provide your own personal stories to show that it doesn't have to end in abortion.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's actually a reduction in the number of abortions procured by Irish women when the legislation takes effect. The stress of knowing the option wasn't available locally must have been a huge additional burden, and once flights were booked etc. changing of mind would have been unlikely. At least now there's going to be consultation locally, advice, support etc. and with the proposals to increase access to birth control and improve sex education in schools it should be a much healthier environment for women in general.