A protestor at the Our Bodies; Our Right Rally to Repeal the 8th in Dublin last Saturday
“Because they are in direct touch with the electorate Irish politicians know this and that is why they repeatedly say there is no appetite for another referendum. Politicians are understandably reluctant to spend even more time and energy on constitutional proposals that have no real prospect of being passed or lawmaking that would do little to alter the plight of those in crisis pregnancies in the absence of constitutional change. Many might wish it otherwise but that is the political reality.”
Noel Whelan in today’s Irish Times.
Referendum so.
Abortion amendment didn’t happen by accident (Noel Whelan, Irish Times)
Previously: There’s No Appetite For A Further Referendum
friday, nearly half 3. who fancies a scoop?
Link broken
Apologies Rotide. Fixed now. Thanks.
There’s that second ‘o’ in ‘protester’ again. Maybe if you keep writing it that way, they’ll eventually just change the spelling of the word
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/protester
I’m convinced now that Noel Whelan can’t write or say anything without having a dig at some other named media outlet.
he could be correct this time even if he is a mouthpiece
I have very little doubt he is correct.
fairly [predictable and ] judgemental stuff.
Not everyone against abortion is religious or even Catholic
So predictable that you didn’t even read it, it seems.
Let’s not kid ourselves that there isn’t a strong correlation.
True but there isn’t a single anti-abortion organisation in Ireland that isn’t led by conservative catholics.
“Because they are in direct touch with the electorate Irish politicians know this and that is why they repeatedly say there is no appetite for another referendum. ”
Unfortunately the ones who really have “no appetite for another referendum” are the politicians, certainly not this side of a general election.
Exactly, the thing is though, much as I would like to see the article repealed, I don’t think the votes are there. Don’t get me wrong, Dublin would probably vote 70% in favour of repeal, but the likes of Donegal will probably vote 80% against.
Even if it does gets repealed I’d say that would happen during the middle of the term of the next government, 5 years after that they’ll legislate for cases of rape, incest, and medical reason. 5 years after that you might get abortion before 10 weeks. Best case scenario is abortion on request up to 10 weeks in about 13 years time.
On the bad days, I fear you might be right. But isn’t that an argument for starting now?
Yup, plenty of work ahead though.
There’s a few things that have changed massively over the last 20 years or so. Average level of educational attainment is waaaay up. Which generally results in more liberal people. This can be seen from the point of view of changing attitudes of everything from abortion to gay marriage to euthanasia to whatever other social issue you care to pick. The swing from more conservative view points has not only been substantial, it has happened at an accelerated pace across a wide variety of issues.
It also helps of course that the catholic church took pages out of the dictators playbook and was culpable in imprisonment, rape, torture, mass graves etc. Hurt a lot of their credibility even with more traditionally conservative older people who now will no longer blindly follow their standing on matters.
Abortion will be legalised in Ireland, it’s a matter of time, a careful decision on when a vote could be won is necessary though.
The real thing that confuses me though is why the anti abortion crowd don’t want a referendum on repeal right now. They’d actually stand a chance of winning it. The longer they leave the more it swings towards repeal and the heavier a defeat they’ll suffer (which I’d imagine would accelerate my previous timeline significantly). The referendum is coming, it’s just a matter of time and with an uncertain victor.
Noel Whelan is a shill. 100% shill. Used to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this is patently ridiculous.