Anthony McIntyre is voting Yes in today's referendum.

In just over an hour's time this society will begin the process of casting its votes in the referendum on the 8th Amendment. Before the weekend is over we should know if the emancipatory campaign to Repeal the 8th has been successful or if conservative Catholicism is to have a stay of execution. I remain confident that like all previous secular driven campaigns, Repeal shall prevail.

While conservative religious opinion appears to be the engine driving the No Campaign, it would be a mistake to reduce the lobby to that. There are many people from all walks of life, including avowed atheists and secularists, who are opposed to Repeal. Many of them voted in favour of same sex marriage. That they cannot in all conscience vote for Repeal is arguably due to a feeling that same sex marriage caused no harm whereas abortion does. A day or two ago one of them told me that they voted for same sex marriage because they believe in equality and that this belief is what drives them to vote no today. Repeal, in their view, runs counter to an equality ethos, stripping life in the womb of equal rights.

Unlike many motivated by religious opinion, this is not a perspective that subscribes to the theology of domination whereby others must be compelled to conduct their lives in accordance with a religious opinion not their own. They are not some sort of fertility police eager to have customs officials intervene to prevent abortion pills making their way into Ireland.

Being open to all manner of opinion on the abortion question other than a religious one (Unicornology is of no concern to me) I find it easy to live with that alternative view. Nevertheless, because the issue is so polarising, opinion so divided, allowing the individual to behave in accordance with their own conscience rather than somebody else's, is the best way to proceed: optimum not perfect.

When I go to the polling station this evening after work, I will not be doing so out of any belief that it empowers child killers to inflict some form of biblical infanticide. I will cast my vote to help those faced with a difficult decision, the power to make the decision.

As for the luminaries of the No campaign, as Ruth Coppinger observed of them:

As well as saying ‘no’ to the right of a woman to have a choice, the leaders of the No campaign have said no to contraception. They said no to sex education. They said no to same-sex marriage three years ago. They have said no to divorce, to equal employment, to married women being in the public service, to working mothers, to LGBT+ rights and to gender recognition . . .

My Yes vote is a No to all of that.


Anthony McIntyre blogs @ The Pensive Quill.

Follow Anthony McIntyre on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre      


Yes

Anthony McIntyre is voting Yes in today's referendum.

In just over an hour's time this society will begin the process of casting its votes in the referendum on the 8th Amendment. Before the weekend is over we should know if the emancipatory campaign to Repeal the 8th has been successful or if conservative Catholicism is to have a stay of execution. I remain confident that like all previous secular driven campaigns, Repeal shall prevail.

While conservative religious opinion appears to be the engine driving the No Campaign, it would be a mistake to reduce the lobby to that. There are many people from all walks of life, including avowed atheists and secularists, who are opposed to Repeal. Many of them voted in favour of same sex marriage. That they cannot in all conscience vote for Repeal is arguably due to a feeling that same sex marriage caused no harm whereas abortion does. A day or two ago one of them told me that they voted for same sex marriage because they believe in equality and that this belief is what drives them to vote no today. Repeal, in their view, runs counter to an equality ethos, stripping life in the womb of equal rights.

Unlike many motivated by religious opinion, this is not a perspective that subscribes to the theology of domination whereby others must be compelled to conduct their lives in accordance with a religious opinion not their own. They are not some sort of fertility police eager to have customs officials intervene to prevent abortion pills making their way into Ireland.

Being open to all manner of opinion on the abortion question other than a religious one (Unicornology is of no concern to me) I find it easy to live with that alternative view. Nevertheless, because the issue is so polarising, opinion so divided, allowing the individual to behave in accordance with their own conscience rather than somebody else's, is the best way to proceed: optimum not perfect.

When I go to the polling station this evening after work, I will not be doing so out of any belief that it empowers child killers to inflict some form of biblical infanticide. I will cast my vote to help those faced with a difficult decision, the power to make the decision.

As for the luminaries of the No campaign, as Ruth Coppinger observed of them:

As well as saying ‘no’ to the right of a woman to have a choice, the leaders of the No campaign have said no to contraception. They said no to sex education. They said no to same-sex marriage three years ago. They have said no to divorce, to equal employment, to married women being in the public service, to working mothers, to LGBT+ rights and to gender recognition . . .

My Yes vote is a No to all of that.


Anthony McIntyre blogs @ The Pensive Quill.

Follow Anthony McIntyre on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre      


8 comments:

  1. of what church do the unborn belong to?
    none.

    this is a human rights issue.

    "conservative Catholicism is to have a stay of execution. "

    what an unfortunate choice of phrase - stay of execution.

    for all your avowed anti-religion you are a high priest of cultural marxism and have a massive blind spot for your own unicornology. you're welcome to your open border tranny loving aborting society. it wont be cultural marxists who will be picking up the pieces when it implodes under the weight of its own bullshit and anti-life values.https://atomicgator.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/unicorn.jpg

    and your yes vote is not a no to ruth coppingers list. its a yes to abortion on demand.

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  2. A bit disingenuous are those photos. I have yet to see a protest of much against the rampant child abuse of those in other churches and indeed public services? If you think politicians are not raping kids or at the very least covering up the abuse then you haven't been paying attention. The problem for the Catholic Church is they don't have friends in the media to airbrush and whitewash allegations made against them. The head of the main church in Britain ie greedy Betty on the other hand holds all the aces when it comes to control of media,law etc etc.
    Btw I am all for sex education, contraception etc but we don't need to introduce it to toddlers.......unless we want to condition them for sex of course? If the liberals truly wanted to tackle child rape they'd be filling the streets demanding so.

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  3. TO EACH HIS OWN . MACKERS THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH .ITS ABOUT A HUMAN LIFE THE MOTHER CAN SPEAK FOR HERSELF THE CHILD CANT . WE ALL HAVE GRIPES WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AS CLEARLY YOU HAVE . BUT WITH UNBORN CHILDREN ? I AM A LOYAL FOLLOWER OF YOURSELF MACKERS AND ADMIRE WHAT YOU CONTRIBUTED DURING OUR CONFLICT I HAVE DEFENDED YOU ON MANY OCCASIONS ALTHOUGH IM WELL AWARE YOU ARE QUITE CAPABLE OF DOING THIS YOURSELF .sorry about cap locks didint realise they were on

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  4. Vote yes to remove the dirty hands of patriarchy from the bodies and minds of Irish women for good.

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  5. I’ve argued before on here, the logical outcome from the absolutist concept of “her body, her choice” should be the cancelling of enforced child maintenance payments for males that didn’t want to assume the responsibility of parenthood, but are forced to because of the female choice. Since there is no concept of shared responsibility after plebiscites such as this,indeed it is antiquated and patriarchal, let’s have full gender equality and smash societies enforcement of the gender stereotype of the ‘male provider’ too.

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  6. Thanks to all for the comments and exchanges throughout the debate. The polls have closed and may the best case win.

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  7. Initial exit polls suggest a trouncing for the Breda O'Brien's, the Maria Steen's, the Ronan Mullin's et al.

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  8. Very much so Henry Joy. A remarkable outcome.

    Saw an image yesterday of a young woman with a poster "Iona uterus and it is mine". Thought it very witty,

    How decisively that sentiment was asserted in the referendum.

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