Ireland’s no-exceptions-made abortion ban was one of the cruelest and most inhumane in the world, and after years of struggle, the country has finally held a referendum to amend its constitution and strike down the abortion ban in Article 8; the official count isn’t out, but the Irish Times has called it for the reformers, in a “landslide,” with a projected 68%-32% margin.
According to the Times’s poll, over 65s voted 60% against reform, Dubliners voted 77% in favour, women voted 70% in favour, and men voted 65% in favour.
However, the size of the victory predicted by the exit poll leaves little doubt that, whatever the final count figures, the constitutional ban on abortion, inserted in a referendum in 1983, is set to be repealed. An exit poll published later on Friday night by RTÉ during the Late Late Show mirrored the projection seen in The Irish Times exit poll. The RTÉ poll showed 69.4 have voted for Yes, while 30.6 per cent have voted for No.
Irish Times exit poll projects Ireland has voted by landslide to repeal Eighth Amendment [Pat Leahy/Irish Times]
(Image: William Murphy, CC-BY)
