It looks like celebrity endorsements and liberal talking points have proved more popular than science and life, as exit polls appear to indicate a lopsided victory for the “Yes” side to repeal the 8th amendment and make abortion legal.
According to the Irish Times:
The poll suggests that the margin of victory for the Yes side in the referendum will be 68 per cent to 32 per cent – a stunning victory for the Yes side after a long and often divisive campaign.
Clearly age was a major factor as the younger the person, the higher likelihood they voted to make abortion legal.
As Faithwire’s Will Maule reported today, many of the “Yes” campaigners today struggled when trying to explain why the currently protected unborn child should lose their personhood status and right to life in the womb.
The votes will be tallied over the weekend and the official results expect to be declared by tomorrow afternoon. At least according to this exit poll of 4,500 people, the outcome does not appear in question:
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whatever the final count figures, the constitutional ban on abortion, inserted in a referendum in 1983, is set to be repealed.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.
If the numbers hold and the 8th Amendment is repealed, that doesn’t mean abortions can start right away. They will remain illegal until new legislation is passed saying otherwise, but that is almost a certainty with the protections no longer in place.
It’s a sad day in Ireland, and a sad day for anyone who values human life. Once again, the talking points about “choice” and “women’s health” distracted from what is actually happening — the killing of an innocent human life — and put people’s convenience over the human rights of the unborn child.
Pray this action doesn’t lead to the millions of abortions that Roe v. Wade led to in the United States.