# Ireland abortion referendum 25 May **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 21, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577 "2018-05-21T18:55:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/41 "2018-05-25T22:10:35Z")
Oh and the hospitals. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/42 "2018-05-25T22:33:47Z")
Not one vote counted yet. RTE just released theirs. 70% yes. The original ref in the 80’s was a mirror of this result 67% no abortion. Divorce passed in '95 by less that 1%. SSM in 2015 passed with 63% If these numbers are true it a hugely important result outside of the actual issue at hand. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/43 "2018-05-25T22:34:57Z")
RTE exit poll in line with the Irish Times one > ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/44 "2018-05-26T08:05:08Z")
Counting has begun. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/45 "2018-05-26T09:06:48Z")
Sky News, UK, just reported that NO has conceded defeat. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/46 "2018-05-26T09:19:14Z")
> [@Fuji](#): > > I think this one is going to be a lot closer than the same-sex-marriage referendum in 2015. I wouldn’t even be all that surprised if the repeal effort fails. Looks like I called this one wrong. Good! Happy to see my fellow citizens make the right choice. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/47 "2018-05-26T14:30:40Z")
> [@Fuji](#): > > Looks like I called this one wrong. Good! Happy to see my fellow citizens make the right choice. 🙂 I was having a drink at a local watering hole last night and I bumped into an Irish friend of mine and we had a brief chat about the vote, at which point the friend told me the results were in and the ban was upheld. I was very surprised, and I’m glad to find out that info was wrong! Welcome to the 20th century, Ireland. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/48 "2018-05-26T14:46:22Z")
Something noteworthy about this referendum were the groups of American activists who traveled to Ireland with the aim of campaigning for a No vote and attempting to influence voters decisions. Foreign nationals trying to influence voters, imagine that. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/49 "2018-05-26T17:18:51Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Though I think it is unwise to give too much credence to polls, I do get the feeling that this is going to fly through and not even be close. I’d be surprised if it were not approaching a 20% gap. My thinking is that the “undecided” will swing mostly “yes” and that “yes” voters are more likely to vote anyway. Yay! my gut feeling worked out for once. Very glad for the women of Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/50 "2018-05-26T17:32:22Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Something noteworthy about this referendum were the groups of American activists who traveled to Ireland with the aim of campaigning for a No vote and attempting to influence voters decisions. > > Foreign nationals trying to influence voters, imagine that. Groups of American activists also came to Canada in the 60s with the aim of sowing alarmist fears about the upcoming vote for single-payer health care. Specifically, Saskatchewan was expanding the existing public hospitalization coverage to full-fledged single payer, and the big American insurers were getting their shorts in a knot over it. At least they didn’t send in the CIA to stage a coup and overthrow the government. I, on the other hand, was not permitted to buy an “Obama '08” baseball cap in 2008 because it would have been an illegal campaign contribution by a foreigner, thus constituting foreign meddling in an election. I should have asked Putin to get one for me. ETA: Couldn’t resist the small digression, but on topic, kudos to Ireland, and welcome to the 21st century! ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/51 "2018-05-26T17:49:15Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Without derailing the thread, isn’t this phenomenon kind of like SSM or Brexit or the Scottish independence movement, in the sense that you can run an unlimited number of referendums until you get the “Yes” vote you want, but all a “No” vote merely postpones the status quo until the next referendum, and hence the momentum and power always lies on the “yes” side, since 99 “noes” don’t mean much but all is needed is one “yes?” Unlike SSM or Brexit or the Scottish independence movement you could easily outlaw abortion again. There wouldn’t be a bunch of marriages, or Brexiting, or independencing to undo. And it’s not like the proponent of an amendment to the Irish constitution can just call for all the referendums they want: > [@](#): > > A proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland must first be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), then submitted to a referendum, and finally signed into law by the President of Ireland. (From Wikipedia.) You might as well ask if the prohibitionists had all the momentum in 1919, they only had to get their amendment to the constitution ratified once, right? And then there was no alcohol sale in the US for forever. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/52 "2018-05-26T19:01:00Z")
I saw a news article about this posted on FB and the photo showed a woman who was voting. She was dressed head to toe in orange. The connotations were not lost on me. Maybe her outfit was just a coincidence or something, but…has this been turned into a sectarian issue? Are Protestants and Catholics significantly divided over it? (I know this pertains to the Republic of Ireland, obviously, and not Northern Ireland.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/53 "2018-05-26T20:17:30Z")
I’m sure the greens opposed it in the main, but I don’t see how abortion is approved of by Protestants either. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/54 "2018-05-26T20:19:40Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Something noteworthy about this referendum were the groups of American activists who traveled to Ireland with the aim of campaigning for a No vote and attempting to influence voters decisions. > > Foreign nationals trying to influence voters, imagine that. What did you expect from Republicans? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/55 "2018-05-26T21:25:16Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Something noteworthy about this referendum were the groups of American activists who traveled to Ireland with the aim of campaigning for a No vote and attempting to influence voters decisions. > > Foreign nationals trying to influence voters, imagine that. Presumably these are people who have no problems with Putin’s efforts to interfere in US elections. (I have no citation for that but it would appear to be logical.) One wonders if any of them even realize that in Putin’s Russian, abortion is fully legal through the 12th week and largely legal after that, and > [@](#): > > Russia had the highest number of abortions per woman of child-bearing age in the world according to UN data as of 2010. [https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/policy/world-abortion-policies-2013.shtml](https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/policy/world-abortion-policies-2013.shtml) So anyway, congratulations to the Irish. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/56 "2018-05-26T23:40:55Z")
The US has a long history of trying to influence the public opinion in other countries, both officially and unofficially, and we’re perfectly capable of being hypocrites about it. So no, your presumption isn’t logical. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/57 "2018-05-26T23:57:37Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Wait, abortion is illegal in a European country? Why does that surprise you? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/58 "2018-05-27T00:11:30Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The US has a long history of trying to influence the public opinion in other countries, both officially and unofficially, and we’re perfectly capable of being hypocrites about it. So no, your presumption isn’t logical. Your comment makes no sense. No one was discussing “the US” trying to influence public opinion in other countries. What was actually being discussed was the activity of _private citizens_: > [@bucketybuck](#): > > Something noteworthy about this referendum were the **groups of American activists** who traveled to Ireland with the aim of campaigning for a No vote and attempting to influence voters decisions. [highlighting mine] ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/59 "2018-05-27T01:01:15Z")
There’s a world of difference between private citizens overtly expressing opinions about an election in another country and governments covertly funding troll armies and fake news. Barack Obama mentioned he’d like to see the UK remain the EU prior to that referendum. People in the elections forums often comment on foreign elections. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577/60 "2018-05-27T01:31:41Z")
Two-to-one margin, I wonder about the demographics . It has been 35 years under that amendment, the median age is what, 37? So virtually half the country was born after it passed. I do wonder how surprised the no/statu-quo forces are with the outcome and the margin. It certainly looks like pre-event polling was strongly affected by the voters holding their cards close to the vest. As of when the regulating legislation gets put into effect, it will be Northern Ireland that will be stuck with retaining an anti-choice law, out of step with \*both \*the rest of the UK \*and \*the Republic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ireland-abortion-referendum-25-may/814577.md?page=4)