Ireland – Slickly organised Oireachtas members rally for abortion-referendum No vote

Photo that may mark start of Fianna Fáil leadership challenge
Slickly organised Oireachtas members rally for abortion-referendum No vote

May 3, 2018
Sarah Bardon Political Reporter

“Hi all. A photograph of Fianna Fáil Oireachtas members who support No vote will take place at Merrion Street entrance of Leinster House. Please do not be late. We will be finished at 4pm.”

This was the text that arrived in the inbox of Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators on Tuesday afternoon at 12.39pm about an event for those opposing the repeal of the Eighth Amendment.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/photo-that-may-mark-start-of-fianna-f%C3%A1il-leadership-challenge-1.3483562

Ireland – Battle on doorsteps reveals different truths for Yes and No campaigns

Battle on doorsteps reveals different truths for Yes and No campaigns
Both sides in abortion referendum believe they have the edge. How can both be right?

April 27, 2018
Harry McGee

When you ask Joe Walsh, a No campaigner, when he started canvassing for the referendum on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, his response takes you aback. “We started three years ago,” he says, matter-of-factly, “and have not stopped since then.”

Although the media spotlight over the past five years has been mostly on the evolution of the referendum to decide whether to repeal the amendment, which bans abortion in almost all circumstances, anti-abortion campaigners have not been idle, as is immediately apparent outside Dublin. The No campaign was first to put up its posters, and it has big canvassing teams, in which young women tend to be to the fore, in most parts of the State.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/battle-on-doorsteps-reveals-different-truths-for-yes-and-no-campaigns-1.3476881

Ireland – Fine Gael succeeds by keeping distance between economy and abortion

Fine Gael succeeds by keeping distance between economy and abortion
Fianna Fáil’s conservative stance on referendum question risks alienating younger voters

April 19, 2018
Damian Loscher

Today’s Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll reveals a drop in support for Fine Gael. After retreating two points in January from a high of 36 per cent in December, Fine Gael has slipped a further three points to land on 31 per cent in this poll.

For Fianna Fáil, its poll rating is moving in the right direction, albeit with a marginal gain of just one point. With 26 per cent support, it has reduced the gap and is now just five points behind Fine Gael.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abortion-referendum/fine-gael-succeeds-by-keeping-distance-between-economy-and-abortion-1.3465985

19.04.2018

Ireland – Facebook action too late for abortion vote

Facebook action too late for abortion vote

Ellen Coyne, Senior Ireland Reporter
April 9 2018

Measures to tackle international organisations seeking to influence elections will not apply to the referendum on the Eighth Amendment, Facebook has confirmed.

The network, which is profiting from unknown anti-abortion groups running misleading advertisements before next month’s vote, admitted over the weekend that it had been slow to pick up foreign interference in the 2016 US election. It announced measures to make political adverts more transparent, but they will not be in place in Ireland until later this year at the earliest.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/facebook-action-too-late-for-abortion-vote-225vpvlpz

Ireland – Simon Coveney: My indecision on abortion is final (I think)

Simon Coveney: My indecision on abortion is final (I think)
Simon Coveney is suffering brickbats for changing his mind on abortion. Is this only a personal crisis, or does it reflect a split in the government, asks Stephen O’Brien

Stephen O’Brien, Political Editor
April 1 2018

The headline in the Irish Examiner confirmed that all was not well in Cork. “Coveney plan for legal lock in tatters,” the newspaper declared on Wednesday as the tanaiste, a local TD, made the news for the third day running.

“Tanaiste Simon Coveney has been left humiliated after his two-thirds Dail majority legal-lock plan for the government’s post-referendum abortion law was labelled unconstitutional, naive and deeply damaging to the ‘yes’ campaign,” the Examiner railed.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/simon-coveney-my-indecision-on-abortion-is-final-i-think-qjxq07h2p

Ireland sets May date for historic abortion referendum

Ireland sets May date for historic abortion referendum
Vote on 25 May will offer citizens opportunity to overhaul one of world’s strictest regimes

Henry McDonald , Ireland correspondent
Wed 28 Mar 2018

Ireland will vote in a referendum on 25 May on liberalising its strict abortion laws, the government has confirmed, in an announcement that officially begins two months of campaigning.

Abortion has long been a divisive issue in the once stridently Catholic country. A complete ban was only lifted in 2013, when terminations were allowed in cases where the mother’s life was in danger.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/28/ireland-sets-abortion-referendum-date

Ireland – Abortion referendum to go ahead following Dáil vote

Abortion referendum to go ahead following Dáil vote
Vote to hold referendum passes by 97 to 27, with 16 Fianna Fáil TDs voting against

Wed, Mar 21, 2018
Sarah Bardon, Marie O'Halloran, Michael O'Regan

TDs voted by 97 to 27 on Wednesday night to allow a referendum on abortion to go ahead.

After numerous votes in the Dáil, 16 Fianna Fáil TDs voted against the legislation, five fewer than in a vote earlier in the day.

The Bill now goes to the Seanad.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/abortion-referendum-to-go-ahead-following-d%C3%A1il-vote-1.3435008

Ireland’s abortion battle shows we must never let the fundamentalists win

Ireland’s abortion battle shows we must never let the fundamentalists win
Women have paid a terrible price for a law that gives the unborn the same rights as mothers

Suzanne Moore
Thu 8 Mar 2018

It’s a bugger when your flight is cancelled. It’s worse, I imagine, if you’re having to travel to another country to have an abortion. Time and money matter. When I saw that the recent snow had grounded flights from Ireland I immediately thought of this. Maybe I have never forgotten the time I sat next to an anxious young woman on a flight from Dublin who began to tell me why she was coming to London but couldn’t finish her sentences. She was just so alone that I wanted to go to the clinic with her. In the old days I remember seeing such women on the ferries.

Irish women have abortions, you see – they just don’t have them in their own country. Currently about nine women a day travel to the UK for terminations. Irish society knows of this export of hypocrisy, yet it continues to export its responsibility for human rights. Women pay the price.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/08/abortion-ireland-women-unborn-mothers

Ireland – Poll shows strong support in favour of abortion referendum – but ’12 week’ proposal splits public

Poll shows strong support in favour of abortion referendum - but '12 week' proposal splits public

Philip Ryan
February 18 2018

There is strong support in favour of a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, according to a poll.

The Kantar Millward Brown poll, in today's Sunday Independent, finds a strong support in favour of a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, with 63pc in favour.

Continued: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/poll-shows-strong-support-in-favour-of-abortion-referendum-but-12-week-proposal-splits-public-36615455.html

18.02.2018

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

Ireland’s opposition leader wants to liberalise abortion law

Ireland's opposition leader wants to liberalise abortion law
Micheál Martin stuns sections of Fianna Fáil party by changing his mind over the contentious issue

Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Sun 11 Feb 2018

Ireland’s opposition leader has revealed he changed his mind in favour of liberalising the Republic’s strict anti-abortion laws after meeting women forced to travel to Britain to end their pregnancies after learning they had no hope their babies would be born alive.

Micheál Martin has stunned conservative sections of his Fianna Fáil party by backing the repeal of the eighth amendment to the Irish Republic’s constitution, which prohibits abortion, in a nationwide referendum in May.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/11/micheal-martin-ireland-opposition-leader-wants-to-liberalise-abortion-law