It looks like a very strong majority in favour of abolishing Amendment 8, which made abortion illegal
Abortion referendum count: emphatic Yes win expected
Early tallies confirm exit poll prediction of a landslide majority for repeal of Eighth Amendment (Irish Times)
This calls for a celebration, but it's a wee bit early in my time zone to get out the water of life!
Great news.
https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3840-racism-and-reproductive-health-mig...
Interesting also that Ireland, after exporting so many people for so many years, now is home to many "New Irish".
great to hear this news after Trump announcing he wouldn't allow Drs to dis cuss abortions with women.
Obviously, this law is still far too restrictive, but the large majority will make it possible for the women's movement (and allies) to fight for a better law - or no law at all.
Hopefully, soon, the phrase "she took a trip to England" will simply refer to someone taking a vacation.
Nice to see this, and a long time coming.
My father often described himself as Irish, even though he was as Canadian as beaver poutine. My own real name is probably on par with "Liam Neeson" in terms of shamrock-quotient. But Ireland's former (staunch, entrenched) opposition to choice was always far more inexplicable and embarrasing to me than, say, their supposed love of dour authors, whiskey, and a good fight. Keep up the momentum, Ireland.
Nice to see this, and a long time coming.
My father often described himself as Irish, even though he was as Canadian as beaver poutine. My own real name is probably on par with "Liam Neeson" in terms of shamrock-quotient.
SO...like our Liam...do you also have "a particular set of skills"?
More like, like his speech, "I don't have money". :)
The Celtic fringe is very prominent in Canadian society. Not only Irish and Scots (and some Welsh, though I believe there are more in Chile and Argentina) but remember that Jacques Cartier was a Breton, as are many Québécois and other francophones.
One of our girls and her Irish husband live in Galway and worked tirelessly on the Yes campaign. Needless to say they're overjoyed by the result (but know there's a lot of work ahead of them). I expect they and their friends spent Saturday night in their favourite pub celebrating. Yay for Irish women!
One of our girls and her Irish husband live in Galway and worked tirelessly on the Yes campaign. Needless to say they're overjoyed by the result (but know there's a lot of work ahead of them). I expect they and their friends spent Saturday night in their favourite pub celebrating. Yay for Irish women!
The excessive control the Catholic hierarchy had over Ireland, control established in the 1930s as part of a deal De Valera made with the Church in the early Thirties-"Dev" agreed to let the Church control virtually every espect of everyone's personal life in the Free State, in exchange for the Church agreeing to excommunicate all remaining armed republican combatants, including priests in a handful of cases-has been broken.
Hopefully, the days when women died of illegal abortions or were forced to leave the country to terminate their pregnancies, even when they'd been raped, as well as the days when atrocities such as the Magdalene Laundries could take place, are coming finally to an end. Saoirse!
From Reuters...
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a showdown with ministers and lawmakers in her Conservative party after refusing to back reform of Northern Ireland's highly restrictive abortion rules after neighboring Ireland's vote to liberalise its laws.
It's somewhat unclear to me from the rest of the article just how much power May would have to intervene on this issue given the devolved status of N. Ireland.
Devolution is just a regular law that Westminster could repeal or amend at will. It's guaranteed only by the Good Friday and St. Andrews accords; moreover, the former is already being violated by May, for the same reason that amending the devolution acts to guarantee abortion rights would be difficult: her coalition with the DUP.
Of course, the Northern Ireland Assembly collapsed a year and a half ago and doesn't look likely to resume soon, so she could conceivably make a case that she's not usurping power so much as eliminating a power vacuum, were she not beholden to said DUP.
From Reuters...
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a showdown with ministers and lawmakers in her Conservative party after refusing to back reform of Northern Ireland's highly restrictive abortion rules after neighboring Ireland's vote to liberalise its laws.
It's somewhat unclear to me from the rest of the article just how much power May would have to intervene on this issue given the devolved status of N. Ireland.
Is this going to lead to Unionist/Loyalist women going to the Republic to get abortions?
Is this going to lead to Unionist/Loyalist women going to the Republic to get abortions?
I'm not going anywhere, FYI.
From Reuters...
British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a showdown with ministers and lawmakers in her Conservative party after refusing to back reform of Northern Ireland's highly restrictive abortion rules after neighboring Ireland's vote to liberalise its laws.
It's somewhat unclear to me from the rest of the article just how much power May would have to intervene on this issue given the devolved status of N. Ireland.
Is this going to lead to Unionist/Loyalist women going to the Republic to get abortions?
It might depend on what kind of laws the Republic brings in. If they're more restrictive than British laws, a lot of women in the North(as well as in the Republic itself) might still find it less onerous to take the ferry across the sea.
That said, I don't know anything about what's being planned, and I guess I'd be surprised if, after hailing this as a great victory, the Irish government brought in highly restrictive abortion laws.
