The 2018 abortion referendum: over before it began!

Reidy, Theresa

The 2018 abortion referendum: over before it began!

Files

After_Repeal_Rethinking_Abortion_Politics_----_(One_The_2018_abortion_referendum_over_before_it_began!).pdf(262.97 KB)

Published Version

Date

2020-01-15

Authors

Reidy, Theresa

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Abstract

Ireland was a mostly conservative outpost of Western Europe until the 1990s and the conservative values and policy posi-tions contained in the constitution rested easily with a large majority of voters until at least the 1960s (Lee 1989; Ferriter 2010). Economic expansion and social modernisation in the decades that followed led to the emergence of a new and deep-seated conservative-liberal cleavage in politics (Sinnott 1995). Contraception, divorce and abortion were the main issues on this political fault line and debates became increasingly divisive in the ensuing decades and were widely known as the ‘culture wars’ by the 1980s. Undoubtedly, abortion was the most contro-versial and enduring of these issues. A process of six referendum questions on four separate polling days began with the passing of the Pro-Life (Anti-Abortion) Amendment in 1983. Referendums in Ireland have been classified into three categories: international treaties, legal and political reforms and moral-social questions. Abortion falls into the category of moral-social questions (Sinnott 2002). These referendums draw from the fundamental values that citizens have about how society should be organised and campaigns on these questions have tended to be politically charged and divisive. Paddy O’Carroll described the 1983 abortion referendum as having delivered a campaign of “unparalleled divisiveness, bitterness and rancour” (O’Carroll 1991: 57). Abortion was never far from the political agenda in the following decades, but the first referendum, which sought to liberalise abortion provision, was not put before the people until 2018. This chapter will provide a brief overview of the six abortion votes outlining the evolution of the issue in public debate, the role of campaign actors and the pathway to the 2018 referendum in section one. Section two will present evidence from a series of opinion polls and exit polls which indicate shifting attitudes towards abortion provision. It will use data from the RTÉ-Universities exit poll at the 2018 referendum to demonstrate that Irish attitudes to abortion had liberalised considerably in the previous decade and that the referendum campaign, while important for the mobilisation of voters, was instrumental in changing the views of only a small proportion of voters. In large part, this accounts for the stability in preferences recorded in polls in the lead up to and throughout the campaign. Some reflections on abortion referendums are included in the final section.

Keywords

Ireland , Abortion , Referendum

Citation

Reidy, T. (2020) 'The 2018 abortion referendum: over before it began!', in Browne, K. and Calkin, S. (eds.) After repeal: Rethinking abortion politics. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 21-35.