The 8th amendment(Mod warning in op)

JupiterKid wrote: »

It’s funny, isn’t it? Teenage pregnancies here in Ireland have seen huge drops in recent years as proper sex education has finally made its way to all schools, despite fierce and bitter resistance from religious right wing types. In every country where sex education has been implemented and enhanced, teen pregnancy rates have dropped.

Doesn’t tally with the so called “pro-life” brigade who rally against sex education and easily available contraception as it will turn virginal pure young girls into shameless hussies who will murder their unborn babies at the first opportunity.

Utterly distorted, self-defeatist thinking.

It's interesting to compare number of teenage pregnancies with the recorded number of teenagers who travel to Britain for an abortion. Between 2001 and 2016, the number of teenage pregnancies fell by 64%. In the same timeframe, the number of Irish teenagers recorded having an abortion in Britain fell by 74%.

At first glance, it would seem that the best way to reduce the incidence of abortion, for teenagers at least, is to prevent crisis pregnancies in the first place.

And this would seem to be consistent with international experience too. The Netherlands, which has the least restrictive abortion laws in Europe, has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world. And that's mainly credited to their sex education in schools, their family planning services, and the availability (and subsidisation in some cases) of contraception

bubblypop wrote: »

What about people who dont want to marry?
Should they not have a full sex life then?

To say nothing of the people who couldn't get married until about two and a half years ago.

Thanks for telling your story January. It's similar to mine. On my third pregnancy I was one of the 0.1% who get pregnant on the pill (despite taking it properly). I seriously considered the online abortion pill, going as far as ordering it and then cancelling my order. We were lucky enough to be in a financial position to afford another child, so that was a big plus in favour of me choosing to continue the pregnancy. However I also already had two C-sections and desperately didn't want a third, as I had diastasis recti which was causing debilitating back pain. However weighing up the pros and cons I decided to continue.

The NMH actually suggested that I have my tubes tied, after I had suspected placenta accretia. My chances of having it on a fourth pregnancy are very high. The chances of getting pregnant after having your tubes tied are 0.1% and its unlikely lightening will strike twice, but should it happen (and the 8th has not been repealed) I won't be cancelling my order of the pill. And I certainly won't regret it. Had I chosen to take the online pill last time around I wouldn't have regretted it either - in the same way that I could have had 20 children by now and I don't miss any of them either.

And hopefully the universities won't schedule exams on that day.

Orion wrote: »

Most of them finish before then tbh. Even if they do the polls are open from 7am to 10pm. More people will be working than doing exams and we manage to vote.

true enough but a lot of students are still registered at their home address so travel home to vote.

Orion wrote: »

Most of them finish before then tbh. Even if they do the polls are open from 7am to 10pm. More people will be working than doing exams and we manage to vote.

Students usually need to travel further though, because where they're registered to vote can be in a completely different part of the country from where they go to college. That's not as much an issue for working people, because any travel time is probably their usual commute anyway.

Same sex marriage referendum was held on the 22nd of May. Would be happy with the end of May but many 3 level students will have already made travel plans for June.

lazygal wrote: »

Why can't they register where they live during term time? When I was in college people who really wanted to vote made sure it didn't require a giant trip back to a home county. It is not a huge deal, we moved house last year and reregistered in no time.

I think a better question is why can't we let people vote in referendums at any polling station? A constituency based approach makes sense for general or local elections, but for national polls like referendums or Presidential elections, there shouldn't be any reason someone can't go to whatever polling station they want.

Orion wrote: »

Yet Simon Harris has consistently said 25th May and he's publishing the bill on the 6th of March which is two days shy of the deadline for that date.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/abortion-referendum/eighth-amendment-referendum-harris-to-bring-draft-legislation-on-vote-to-cabinet-36622627.html

What deadline is that? As far as I'm aware, a referendum can be formally called no less than 30 days beforehand and no more than 90 days before. If the referendum was to be held on the 25th May, the final deadline the Oireachtas and government have to get all their parts done in the referendum bill is 25th April (30 days). That's to debate and pass the referendum bill, and issue the polling day order to formally confirm the referendum.

Obviously though sooner is better in any case, especially because the referendum commission can't be set up until the Dáil start debating the referendum bill. But the government isn't likely to introduce a bill until after the Supreme Court appeal about the definition of unborn, which is due to be heard this week.

2wsxcde3 wrote: »

Just because women are having abortions, it does not mean that abortion is ok. Pro-choicers seem to confuse the idea that if something is already happening, then that thing is a good and ok thing.

We have people not paying their TV licence. Does that mean we should stop stigmatizing people who dont pay their TV licence and do away with the TV licence and shut RTE down? Men are getting on a plane every weekend and travelling to Amsterdam to have sex with 3 or more prostitutes. Does that mean we should stop stigmatizing men who travel to another country to have sex with a prostitute and introduce brothels in every town and village across Ireland?

That seems oddly specific...

MrP

2wsxcde3 wrote: »

We have people not paying their TV licence. Does that mean we should stop stigmatizing people who dont pay their TV licence and do away with the TV licence and shut RTE down?

Men are getting on a plane every weekend and travelling to Amsterdam to have sex with 3 or more prostitutes. Does that mean we should stop stigmatizing men who travel to another country to have sex with a prostitute and introduce brothels in every town and village across Ireland?

Yes to both for me.