Ireland votes to repeal abortion ban in historic referendum

[LongTomH]

Source: Vox.com

The 8th Amendment to Ireland’s constitution is one of the most draconian abortion restrictions in the developed world. Irish voters just decided to repeal it.

While votes are still being counted as of Saturday morning, two exit polls showed a huge margin — roughly 70-30 — in favor of repeal. Though exit polls are not always accurate, it is widely seen as implausible they could miss by enough for the amendment to stay in place. A leading anti-repeal group, Save the 8th, has conceded defeat, and Irish politicians are already discussing next steps for moving to a legal abortion regime.

The vote, held on Friday, is a historic victory for Irish feminists, who had been campaigning for the amendment’s repeal ever since it was passed in 1983. Pro-repeal sentiment was especially strong among young and urban voters, suggesting that a new left-leaning and secular majority had supplanted the more conservative Catholic older generation.

The Catholic Church’s influence over Irish politics has been in decline for years now, owing in part to a series of sexual assault and child abuse scandals; this referendum shows that a new secular Ireland is here to stay.

Read more: https://www.vox.com/2018/5/26/17395898/ireland-abortion-irish-referendum-results

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Ireland's Parliament still has to vote to actually repeal the 8th Amendment and set up a new regime for legal abortions.

[PSPS]

1. Amazing how voting can work when Google and Facebook turn off the bots like they did here.

[Granny M]

2. Some Americans laughed at me after the last General Election

in Ireland. We count the votes by hand, in public. No voting machines. I participated in the count after that election, and I enjoyed the whole process. This person laughed and said it was a terrible way to run an election. Admittedly, it takes longer to get the results here. But funny how the exit polls come pretty close to the final tally here.

[OnDoutside]

3. And Irish people enjoy the whole drama of the count, especially as we are a

Multi seat proportional representation democracy, which I don't think Americans have an idea about.

[BigmanPigman]

4. I wonder if that will influence American Irish voters

who go with the GOP mainly due to their stand on abortion. Will this allow them to be less rigid and feel free to focus on other issues as well? Maybe they actually like Dems better and they will give us some votes now that Ireland has relaxed their strict stance and wants to get more current with modern politics and views.