CHICAGOANS WEIGH IN ON LANDMARK ABORTION REFERENDUM IN IRELAND
DUBLIN — An abortion debate that has inflamed passions in Ireland for decades will come down to a single question on Friday: yes or no?
The referendum on whether to repeal the country’s strict anti- abortion law — the 8th amendment in the Irish constitution — is being seen by anti- abortion activists as a last- ditch stand against what they view as a European norm of abortion- on- demand, while for pro- abortion rights advocates, it is a fundamental moment for declaring an Irish woman’s right to choose.
If the “yes” side prevails and the constitutional ban on abortions is repealed, the government plans to introduce legislation that would allow abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and later in specific cases when the woman is at grave risk or the fetus is likely to die in the womb or shortly after birth. Parliament would then debate this plan.
Opinion surveys suggest a continuing change of attitudes in Ireland, a traditionally Roman Catholic country that surprised many by voting in favor of same- sex marriage in 2015. Both sides generally agree that the frenzied campaign ahead of Friday’s vote has not produced the dramatic shift in public opinion that anti- abortion campaigners were hoping for.
Still, David Quinn of the socially conservative Iona Institute says the “no” forces opposed to abortion rights still have “a fighting chance,” and recalled other recent political upsets.
“Remember: Brexit wasn’t supposed to pass, and Donald Trump wasn’t supposed to get elected,” he said.
The referendum also has sparked interest in Chicago, which has thousands of residents claiming Irish heritage and some even holding Irish passports. There’s a Chicago for Repeal Facebook page, and the issue also has been highlighted on the March for Life Chicago page.
Bonnie Quirke, president of Lake County Right to Life and a first- generation IrishAmerican, said Friday’s vote is crucial.
“It is probably one of the most important votes Ireland has ever had because the country has always cared for the unborn,” Quirke said.
Some are even headed back to vote. That decision was easy for Fergus McCarthy. He moved to Chicago last year, but kept up with the country’s referendum to “Repeal the 8th.”
On Thursday, he packed a bag and headed to Ireland, hoping to show solidarity with the women who leave Ireland every year to get an abortion as they did with him in the country’s March 2015 referendum that allowed same- sex marriage.
“My heart goes out to anyone who’s had to leave their home to get the support they need,” said McCarthy, who moved to Lake View last year. “They voted for me to be equal in the eyes of Ireland so I wanted to do the same for them.”
Activists from both sides have put up thousands of emotional signs pleading their case and there were small demonstrations in Dublin on Wednesday as the vote neared.
Friday’s poll will be the fourth time in as many decades that Irish voters have been asked to decide on the issue of abortion.
But this time the debate has been roiled by two factors that voters have not faced before: The extraordinary power of social media and the increased availability through telemedicine websites of new drugs that allow women to make profound decisions over whether to end a pregnancy in the privacy of their homes.