Goodbye 8th

Ireland has voted massively to repeal the 8th amendment.

Ireland has voted by a landslide margin to change the constitution so that abortion can be legalised, according to an exit poll conducted for The Irish Times by Ipsos/MRBI.

The poll suggests that the margin of victory for the Yes side in the referendum will be 68 per cent to 32 per cent – a stunning victory for the Yes side after a long and often divisive campaign. See here for liveblog coverage of events across Friday in the referendum vote.

The Irish Times reported on an issue with the abortion ban in April:

The Eighth Amendment has caused pregnant women with cancer to die and will continue to put them at risk if it is not repealed, an obstetrician has said.

Louise Kenny, a professor of obstetrics and a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, said she had witnessed care being denied to a pregnant woman with cancer because of the State’s abortion laws.

“It is an outrageous lie to say that the Eighth has never changed medical management or adversely affected the outcome of a woman with cancer,” said Prof Kenny, who specialises in the management of high risk pregnancies.

“It is a fact that the Eighth Amendment casts a shadow over the care of every woman of reproductive age with complex medical needs in this State.”

Like this:

I live here. My sister is being treated for incurable metastatic breast cancer. If she misses a period her chemo is stopped until a [pregnancy] test. Were she to fall [pregnant] she would be taken off the clinical trial that is keeping her alive. That is the reality of the 8th we live with.

No more.

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