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Abortion Poll [Who voted]

  • 06-03-2002 10:59am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,483 ✭✭✭✭


    This post has been deleted.

    What way did you vote today 46 votes

    Yes
    0% 0 votes
    No
    15% 7 votes
    Didn't Vote
    58% 27 votes
    Can't Vote
    26% 12 votes


«13

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭Lennoxschips


    I can't vote, as I am not living in Ireland at the moment.

    But please, please, vote NO. What kind of sick country would insist that 14 year old rape victims be forced to bear the child of the rapist. If the yes camp wins then Ireland will be the laughing stock of Europe.

    Bertie needs to go. He's worse than Bush.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 536 ✭✭✭flyz


    haven't voted yet but will be voting no this evening


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,304 ✭✭✭✭koneko


    Can't vote :( Not an Irish citizen.
    If I could I would vote no aswell. Ditto to what Lennoxchips said.

    I get the feeling a No vote will be passed, but we'll see tomorrow evening I suppose. Thinking about a Yes vote passing is just too scary a thought for the 21st century.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,458 ✭✭✭✭gandalf


    Voting a big NO this evening.

    Gandalf.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,264 ✭✭✭✭Hobbes


    After reading the full thing I'll be voting no as well. Voting yes would change nothing except those who have contacted the police (eg. rape) would be restricted. I can't see how that is fair.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Bard


    Originally posted by Lennoxschips
    What kind of sick country would insist that 14 year old rape victims be forced to bear the child of the rapist. If the yes camp wins then Ireland will be the laughing stock of Europe.

    Voting yes won't bring that situation about. Nobody will be forced to bear a child. It will still be illegal to get an abortion in Ireland except in certain circumstances, whichever way the vote goes, as far as I'm aware. This isn't a vote on abortion itself, from what I can see... it's a vote on the special, rare and restricted circumstances under which it can become available. Women can still travel to England, which, as the government representative stated on the Late Late Show debate, is outside the jurisdiction of Irish law. They will still be entitled to an abortion if their own life is in danger, although possibly not if suicidal - depending on the outcome.

    I haven't voted yet, and am still unsure what way I'll vote or even IF I will. There's a lot of people who don't properly understand the issue, and that's hardly surprising given the way the arguments have been put forward by both sides. Personally, my recommendation is that if you don't understand the issue - DON'T VOTE at all. Yes, in that case you're essentially letting someone else vote for you, but if you can't make an informed decision yourself, you might as well not make one at all.

    I'm not sure I DO believe that suicidal tendencies are grounds for abortion. I'm more inclined to say they're not. SO MANY people would be faking it... - but I'm not going to go into that.

    I have to say that I'd fully support it if voting in the referendum was only open to women... but that's a different matter, I guess...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 747 ✭✭✭Biffa Bacon


    But please, please, vote NO. What kind of sick country would insist that 14 year old rape victims be forced to bear the child of the rapist. If the yes camp wins then Ireland will be the laughing stock of Europe.

    Bertie needs to go. He's worse than Bush.
    I voted Yes.

    The reasons that rape is not justification for an abortion are:

    a. It still results in the intentional destruction of innocent human life.

    b. False claims of rape could be made leading to abortion on demand.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,522 ✭✭✭Dr. Loon


    Originally posted by Biffa Bacon

    I voted Yes.

    The reasons that rape is not justification for an abortion are:

    a. It still results in the intentional destruction of innocent human life.

    b. False claims of rape could be made leading to abortion on demand.

    So simple when you put it like that really


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 46 leejon


    Vote NO!!

    Let women decide what they want to do!!

    At least women can still go to the UK, since they are being forced to leave their country for help.... or will Bertie the Burke try and legilate that next!!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭Meh


    Originally posted by Bard
    Nobody will be forced to bear a child.
    Incorrect. Remember that case with the raped pregnant 13 year old who was in the care of the Eastern Health Board? Under the new amendment, the Health Board would not be able to get her an abortion, whether in Ireland or England. From the Government's own Green Paper:
    2.23 Aspects of the law relating to abortion were considered in A and B -v- Eastern Health Board, Mary Fahy, C and the Attorney General, High Court, 28th November 1997. This case involved a thirteen-year-old girl who had been raped and was pregnant as a result. The Eastern Health Board, which had subsequently taken the girl into its care, became aware that she was pregnant and, in accordance with the girl's wishes, obtained orders from the District Court allowing it to take the girl abroad for an abortion and to make all necessary arrangements for same.

    2.24 C's parents sought to challenge these orders by way of judicial review. However, Geoghegan J. accepted that, where evidence had been given to the effect that the pregnant young woman might commit suicide unless allowed to terminate her pregnancy, there was a real and substantial risk to her life and such termination was therefore a permissible medical treatment of her condition where abortion was the only means of avoiding such a risk. In other words, the test formulated in the X case was applied in the C case also.

    And the judge's remarks in the case:
    A court of law, in considering the welfare of an Irish child in Ireland and considering whether on health grounds a termination of pregnancy was necessary, must, I believe be confined to considering the grounds for termination which would be lawful under the Irish Constitution and cannot make a direction authorising travel to another jurisdiction for a different kind of abortion.
    In other words, the right to travel does not allow the Health Board to send the girl abroad to get an abortion which would be illegal in this country.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 747 ✭✭✭Biffa Bacon


    In other words, the right to travel does not allow the Health Board to send the girl abroad to get an abortion which would be illegal in this country.
    Quite rightly. Public money should not be spent to allow someone avail of a service that is constitutionally prohibited in this country.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,981 ✭✭✭✭Giblet


    Posted By Bard:
    I'm not sure I DO believe that suicidal tendencies are grounds for abortion. I'm more inclined to say they're not. SO MANY people would be faking it... - but I'm not going to go into that.

    The incedences of this happening were very low and this referendum dosen't help it stay that way.
    The referendum should never have happened.
    A rape victim should never be made to have a child and it is not always an option to go elsewhere to get an abortion.
    Most rape victims would feel suicidal at the prospect of giving birth to a unwanted child. Just imagine her having to deal with the child afterwards, its not going to help matters after she'd been raped only to have to have a child. Its amazing that the people who'd most likely have abortions from rape are the girls who cant vote, and are getting the decisions made for them by people who probably never would have to go thorugh with what they do.
    Sorry for going into it Bard :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭Lennoxschips


    Women can still travel to England, which, as the government representative stated on the Late Late Show debate, is outside the jurisdiction of Irish law. They will still be entitled to an abortion if their own life is in danger, although possibly not if suicidal - depending on the outcome.

    The X-Case ruling permitted a 14 year old rape victim to travel to England to get an abortion. By voting yes, you are voting to overturn the X-case ruling. It's that simple. This is why I believe strongly in a no vote.

    The government representitive was misinformed.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,099 ✭✭✭✭WhiteWashMan


    Originally posted by Biffa Bacon

    Quite rightly. Public money should not be spent to allow someone avail of a service that is constitutionally prohibited in this country.


    hahaha,
    what else whould be introduced, maybe take the right to vote taken away from women?
    you do realilse you sound like a facist dont you?
    you are one of these monster raving mad looney right wing pro lifers who like to parade around with aborted feteuses hanging from their necks telling us how evil we are for making our own desicions and living our own lives.
    maybe you can give me advice on what id like to have for dinner tonight?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,264 ✭✭✭✭Hobbes


    http://www.ireland.com/focus/abortion/

    From reading that (full bill is there) voting yes actally allows abortion.

    1. The doctor can abort a child if he believes the mothers life is at risk. Before the doctor had to take the childs life over the mother. (except in the case of suicide).

    2. It allows people to travel abroad to get an abortion even if it is known that they are doing so to get an abortion.

    The 12 years imprisonment is based on the abortion happening in Ireland and doesn't fall under the valid reason above.

    So all you right to lifers just got scammed. :)

    Voting no will change nothing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Bard


    Originally posted by Lennoxschips


    The X-Case ruling permitted a 14 year old rape victim to travel to England to get an abortion. By voting yes, you are voting to overturn the X-case ruling. It's that simple. This is why I believe strongly in a no vote.

    The government representitive was misinformed.

    She was allowed go, - NOT because she was 14, NOT because she was a victim of rape, but because she was suicidal and the judge at the time considered that a sufficient threat to her life to leave her go.

    Nothing will overturn the X-case ruling. Her case is dead and gone, and I'm sure she herself wishes not to be in the headlines once again.

    However, SINCE the X-case, it seems that suicidal tendencies have been accepted as a sufficient threat to life to allow an abortion. The government are proposing that the threat of suicide be removed from the equation and that it no longer should be considered as sufficient threat to the womans life to warrant an abortion. I actually agree with them. Suicide, whatever way you look at it, is one of the most (if not THE most) idiotic and selfish/self-centred acts any person can carry out... and it's even worse when you are with child. Also, there's plenty of girls/women who will use this as a failsafe fall-back if they DO get pregnant and don't want the baby - they'll just claim that they're suicidal - fake it, essentially... and get their abortion approved.

    Then again, those who claim that there are too many legal loopholes in this legislation to allow it go through have a valid point. Voting NO may force them to redraft it and present a better written and better explained proposed amendment to the electorate some time in the future.

    Personally, I'm still undecided on the issues, but not undecided on whether I'll vote or not (... I will vote)...

    Regardless of how I vote, however, I think the No vote will win out.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭Meh


    Originally posted by Lennoxschips
    The X-Case ruling permitted a 14 year old rape victim to travel to England to get an abortion.
    Incorrect. The X-Case ruling permitted the victim to have an abortion. It had nothing to say about travel to another country.

    Even if the current referendum is passed, there will still be a right to travel in the Constitution.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭Meh


    Originally posted by Biffa Bacon
    Public money should not be spent to allow someone avail of a service that is constitutionally prohibited in this country.
    I agree absolutely. All we differ on is the question of what services should be constitutionally prohibited in this country :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,099 ✭✭✭✭WhiteWashMan


    Originally posted by Hobbes
    http://www.ireland.com/focus/abortion/


    Voting no will change nothing.

    i think thats the point.
    voting yes appears to tighten up the belt on abortion while voting no really doesnt change anything.

    its a stupid referendum. surely ireland should be taking steps to legalise abortion totally. not play stupid symantecs with the constitution


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,335 ✭✭✭Cake Fiend


    If I make it back home in time tonight, I'll be voting No.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 536 ✭✭✭flyz


    Originally posted by Biffa Bacon

    I voted Yes.

    The reasons that rape is not justification for an abortion are:

    a. It still results in the intentional destruction of innocent human life.

    b. False claims of rape could be made leading to abortion on demand.

    Are you saying the same about incest??



    And what about only certain doctors being legally allowed to perform an abortion when necessary??
    Imagine your wife was pregnant and needed medicial assistance immediately. Are you happy with the fact that if she got to one hospitial that the doctor would turn around and say "UhOh, we need to abort this baby now to save your life, but I'm not legally allowed to, so we're going to have to send you to the nearest hospitial that is allowed to, which is an hour away." By then she could be dead. By voting yes you're willing to risk that.
    Plus if the doctor in the first hospitial does decide to do what he can to save your wifes life then both he and your wife risk 12 years imprisonment.

    A load of bollix.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Bard


    Originally posted by Hobbes

    Voting no will change nothing.

    that's the idea...

    the referendum is about whether we want to make the proposed change to the State's constitution.

    if a NO vote goes through, nothing can be changed :- i.e.: the status quo remains.
    Originally posted by flyz

    "UhOh, we need to abort this baby now to save your life, but I'm not legally allowed to, so we're going to have to send you to the nearest hospitial that is allowed to, which is an hour away."

    [/i]

    As far as I'm aware, if a pregnancy or labour presents a real danger to the life of the mother, then that is the special case in which abortion will be allowed. It's the threat of death by suicide that's the main issue,- not by an actual physical problem caused by the pregnancy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,981 ✭✭✭✭Giblet


    One thing ive noticed about the prolife campaigns of the past, is the showing of dead feteuses on posters, with slogans such as "THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN" and so on.
    It's not like it gonna happen in my house, and i would have never seen it if it wasn't for them, but it doesn't make me change my mind, it just make me think that prolifers are sick f**ks, doctors are prepared for such things and are the only people who'd generally see such things, so i ask myself, what is the point.
    Sure people may have their minds changed, but i doubt the showing of dead babies helped anyone eat the lunch and bring their kids into town.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,626 ✭✭✭smoke.me.a.kipper


    i will vote, but im un-decided at the moment.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,488 ✭✭✭Goodshape


    Originally posted by WhiteWashMan
    i think thats the point.
    voting yes appears to tighten up the belt on abortion while voting no really doesnt change anything.

    Not registerd to vote. But if I was, I would vote no. Same reasoning as WWM.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,264 ✭✭✭✭Hobbes


    Originally posted by flyz

    By voting yes you're willing to risk that.

    Argh.. will people ever fecking read the whole bill.

    If you vote yes the doctor will be allowed perform an abortion if the mothers life is at risk but not in the case of suicide.
    (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, abortion does not include the carrying out of a medical procedure by a medical practitioner at an approved place in the course of which or as a result of which unborn human life is ended where that procedure is, in the reasonable opinion of the practitioner, necessary to prevent a real and substantial risk of loss of the womans life other then by self-destruction.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭Meh


    Originally posted by Hobbes
    If you vote yes the doctor will be allowed perform an abortion if the mothers life is at risk but not in the case of suicide.
    Originally posted by flyz:
    we're going to have to send you to the nearest hospitial that is allowed to, which is an hour away." By then she could be dead. By voting yes you're willing to risk that.
    READ -> COMPREHEND -> POST. flyz is talking about the "approved place" provision of the legislation.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,564 ✭✭✭Typedef


    I have to ask.

    Why is the method of conception relevant to the right of life of the child in question?

    Why is a child concieved of rape not entitled to the same right of life as a child who was not?

    I'm not asking about the psychological implications for the mother here what I am asking is why some people believe that a baby concieved of rape is any less entitled to life then it's peer who is concieved through lack of use of contraception, for example?

    It seems totally wrong to subscribe human rights in such an arbitrary way. Does this mean that IVF children don't have a right to life too? Does this mean that babies who are deemed to be 'deformed' are not entitled to life?
    If so, what about the author of under the eye of the clock, he was handicapped, so would you therefore argue he should have been aborted and his book never written?
    What about Christy Brown, maybe he should have been 'terminated too'. Maybe if his conception had been through rape or incest that would have made his termination ok, but if it had been through marriage and consent, then that would have given him right to life, but not before.
    No, I cannot accept this argument, you cannot persecute the child for the sins of the father.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭Lennoxschips


    The X-case in question invlolved a 14 -year old rape victim. I suggest you think what you would do if you had a 14 year old daughter who was raped.


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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 2,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Morpheus


    [nice start to your arguement]

    This is a f*cking democracy,
    vote no. WHY??? because I believe that
    firstly women should be protected over the child they bear, first and foremost.

    secondly, democracies are built on freedom of choice, now while i realise that this particular referendum is about suicide as grounds for abortion, rather than free-for-all abortion, i think it is stupid that in this day and age women must travel abroad for abortions. They should be able to choose, its simple, if your against abortion, then when ur in that situation, go through with the pregnancy, but DONT STAGNATE this democracy by forcing others to not have abortions, just because YOU are against it. I believe that if these aformentioned women will travel abroad ANYWAY, then why not just allow abortions here? I think that if we vote no, it will pave the way to allow abortions, and as its a democracy, you choose wether to have or have not, as you believe, rather than not cos 1 group are against it. These same fanatics would persecute you if they knew youd travelled abroad for an abortion (first hand experience)

    What next? the morning after pill (already questioned) the contraceptive pill??? THE CONDOM!????? oooh godfearing catholics are we, us irish, why St.Paddy would turn in his grave.

    cop on, dont let these hippy tree-huggers and bishops change your decisions with their stupid slogans, and the govt with their sneaky vote yes if your against and no if your for!!!! what sort of a vote is that?! confusing or what?.

    Decide for yourself, if your daughter/sister/friend/girlfriend was suicidal (and ive known one, and believe me theyre not all "FAKING IT" as some MUPPET put it earlier) would you want her to be able to have an abortion to save her life?
    :rolleyes:

    We all no the answer to that one, when ur in the situation for real, or close to it, its funny how your perspective can change quite quickly.

    Faking suicide indeed BARD you should have more sense, not EVERYONE fakes suicide, ive lost two close friends to it.

    and as for you DR.LOON? false claims of rape, fair enough, but is that justification to ignore REAL claims of rape? [snipped]

    I for 1 am voting no.

    [Morphéus - I suggest you read the guidelines before you post again - keep it civil you will get more respect and notice of your point of view - Gandalf]


This discussion has been closed.
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