As Ireland nears a referendum on abortion, pro-lifers and abortion advocates alike anxiously await a vote that will determine what Ireland will look like after May 25.
Pro-life campaign “Save the 8th” posits that if the referendum at May’s end is amended to allow for abortion, women will be able to have abortions up to six months in pregnancy. Between the third and six month of pregnancy, however, abortions will be permitted only in the presence of fatal fetal abnormalities and where the mother’s life is threatened.
Abortion after three months will remain illegal in Ireland save these exceptions, according to The Irish Times.
Ireland’s Repeal The 8th campaign seeks to repeal Ireland’s Eighth Amendment, which outlaws and penalizes those who attempt or successfully abort an unborn child. Abortion advocates have called for the amendment to be changed, calling it “archaic and dangerous.” The pro-abortion advocates call for a lift on all abortion bans, arguing that to prevent a woman from aborting is to prevent her right to exercise her own freedoms.
Forty percent of Irish people support unrestricted abortion until 12 weeks in pregnancy, yet 33 percent think allowing unrestricted abortion until this pregnancy date goes too far, according to a Sunday Independent and Kantar Millward Brown opinion poll. Roughly 20 percent are undecided. The poll included 970 respondents and was conducted across Britain Feb. 6 to 14.
Fewer than three in 10 Irish support elective abortions, according to Breaking News. Support for elective abortions (namely, abortions for reasons other than to save the mother’s life, rape cases and grave fetal abnormalities) is low, indicating Britain’s “Repeal the 8th” campaign will likely fail.
Facebook announced Tuesday that it won’t accept any foreign ads related to Ireland’s upcoming referendum on abortion. “This change will apply to ads we determine to be coming from foreign entities which are attempting to influence the outcome of the vote on May 25,” the company said in a statement. (RELATED: Facebook Bans Foreign Ads On Irish Abortion Referendum)
The vote will be tight, recent polling suggests. The nation will hold its referendum on reforming the Eighth Amendment on May 25.
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