Anti-Abortion "Pro Life" candidates running in the General Election 2016?

wes · 06-02-2016 5:50pm

No fan of Lucinda, but surely people who vote for her, would be well aware of her position, and I am pretty sure that Fine Gael, pretty much promised no changes to abortion law during the last election.

So if you voted for her, considering the platform her party was running on, you can't exactly be surprised at her position vis a vi abortion. Basically, if her constituents voted for her, they should have bothered to see what her position and her parties position at the time was.

BTW, I am in her constituency and didn't vote for her, but others clearly did and our proportional representation system is pretty much designed to ensure minority views are represented. So as much as I personally think her current party are a bit out there, her positions probably represented a minority of the local electorate.

Atlantis50 · 07-02-2016 11:41am

keane2097 wrote: »

The idea of 'freedom of conscience' in Dail votes drives me ****ing bananas.

Your job is to represent the people of the constituency (in Lucinda's case the constituency most strongly in favour of the opposite position to her on abortion in the entire country).

Voting with your conscience is what you do in a referendum, representing your constituency is what you do in the parliament.

How do you know she was not representing her constituency also?

We will find out before the end of the month whether or not she was out of step with her constituents when the results of the Dublin Bay South constituency are revealed.

Manach · 07-02-2016 11:54am

If not already mentioned, Paul Bradford in Cork East.

Lockstep · 08-02-2016 10:44am

wes wrote: »

No fan of Lucinda, but surely people who vote for her, would be well aware of her position, and I am pretty sure that Fine Gael, pretty much promised no changes to abortion law during the last election.

Fine Gael made no such claims. They said they'd institute a panel to examine the medical and legal issues. They did say to Youth Defence that they were opposed to the legalisation of abortion but also that they would implement whatever measures were necessary to safeguard the mother's life.

AlexisM · 08-02-2016 6:43pm

Atlantis50 wrote: »

How do you know she was not representing her constituency also?

We will find out before the end of the month whether or not she was out of step with her constituents when the results of the Dublin Bay South constituency are revealed.

We won't find out whether she was out of step with her constituents on the abortion issue. We'll find out if her constituents are okay with her as an overall package. Her constituents may weigh up her economic policies and decide that those outweigh their disagreement with her on the abortion issue. If Lucinda could be cloned, I suspect Lucinda-Renua-Pro-choice would beat Lucinda-Renua-anti-choice in her constituency which is one of the most liberal in the country. Abortion just isn't important enough of an issue to most people in the general election - it's all about the economy.

I'm struggling with this in my constituency. I don't like the Renua candidate's anti-choice stance but I prefer their economic policies so I'll probably vote for him. Doesn't in any way mean I support his anti-choice stance.