Pro-life campaigners have welcomed today’s Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll on abortion and says the findings are “a devastating blow to the Government’s referendum proposal”.
In the poll, 47% of respondents say they intend to vote Yes and 28% say they will vote No, while 20% of respondents say they are undecided as to how they will vote. Overall the findings represent a 9-point drop in support for repeal of the Eighth Amendment since the last Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll in January.
Commenting on the results, Love Both spokesperson Dr Ruth Cullen said: “Today’s poll results represent a dramatic fall in support for repeal and is a devastating blow to the Government’s proposal. The findings are very much in keeping with what we have been picking up on the canvass in recent weeks.”
Dr Cullen added: “Voters are realising more and more just how extreme the Government’s proposals are and that far from introducing limited abortion, repeal would strip unborn babies of all meaningful protections and abortion on demand would quickly become a reality in Ireland. The pro-repeal side simply cannot gloss over this stark reality.”
Niamh Ui Bhriain of Save the 8th, meanwhile, said the poll reflected the expectations of campaigners that increased familiarity with the issues would lead voters to doubt the Government’s proposals.
“This poll confirms what we have known for some time: the more people get to know about the consequences of a YES vote, the less likely they are to vote yes,” she said. “Notably, a third of those currently saying they will vote yes believe 12 weeks goes too far. As they focus on what their votes will mean in the coming weeks, the referendum will tighten further. Most importantly, we believe that when they find out that this proposal would also allow the abortion of a healthy baby, on UK style grounds, at 6 months gestation, many of those voters will reconsider their votes.”
Pointing out that the Yes vote appears now to have dropped to below 50%, she observed that “on a historical basis, this is an extremely strong position for any ‘No’ campaign to be in”.
