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Updated 16.00pm
A NEW POLL has found more than two-thirds of people think the government should decriminalise abortion in this country.
The poll conducted by Red C on behalf of Amnesty International revealed 25% are against decriminalisation while a whopping 81% of those polled were in favour of significantly widening the grounds for legal abortion access in Ireland.
There is still a number of hardened anti-abortion respondents that oppose abortion in Ireland in all circumstances at 7%.
Criminal offence by law
Interestingly, a substantial proportion of people – some 64% – did not know it is a crime to get an abortion in Ireland when a woman’s life is not at risk.
Fewer than one in 10 knew the penalty was up to 14 years in prison, while 10% thought it carried a fine of €1,000.
Harsh penalty
The poll also found that 70% of respondents agree women have an international human right to an abortion when their pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, where their life or health is at risk, or in cases of fatal foetal impairment.
Among respondents aged 65 or over, awareness of abortion as a criminal offence was at its lowest and those aged 55 and over disagreed most with the possible jail term. Though this group tends to be least in favour of widening access to abortion, even they believe the punishment is too harsh, Amnesty said today.
This is mirrored in other results as only 31% of those who are opposed to abortion in all circumstances agreed with the jail sentence for women.
Other results include:
Commenting on the results today, Amnesty International Ireland’s Executive Director Colm O’Gorman said it is clear Irish views on abortion have “undergone a major transformation”.
People in Ireland are now, on the whole, more understanding of the situations women find themselves in and firmly believe that women should not be criminalised for having an abortion.
The poll of over 1,000 people was carried out in May of this year, prior to the same-sex marriage referendum.
“This poll demonstrates that on the issue of abortion Ireland’s people are clearly way ahead of their government leaders. The conversation we urgently need in Ireland on abortion is a challenging one, but it must happen,” he continued.
O’Gorman told TheJournal.ie that if people in politics have it their way this won’t be an election issue, but he said it needs to be.
We have to make it one. The reason we carried out this poll was for them, as an audience, communicating this to political parties so they have some in depth understanding of public attitudes.
Amnesty Ireland said it will be asking politicians to make a commitment on the issue of repealing the 8th Amendment in the upcoming general election.
The Irish Government should put this issue to the people as a matter of priority. Decriminalising abortion is not only a human rights obligation – it is what people in Ireland want. And this means repealing the 8th Amendment.
“We have to get to a point where we create the type of public conversation where we allow people to express their support for change. We desperately need to be able to have a different sort of conversation,” he said, adding it will be a big challenge.
He said lessons can learnt from the same-sex marriage campaign in running a positive conversation and avoiding a “vitriolic divisive, aggressive debate – it is really tough to do on this issue”.
Poor debate in Ireland
He said if anything, this poll shows that the debate surrounding abortion is “really poor” with a lot of people being misinformed about the laws in this country.
However the Pro Life Campaign today said O’Gorman’s claim about a change in attitude “does not stand up to closer scrutiny”.
Deputy Chairperson Cora Sherlock said almost identical poll findings were published as far back as 1997 but when there was an opportunity for the public to vote on the issue, the outcome of the 2002 referendum was quite different.
She said she also took issue with the reference to the 14 year jail sentence.
“Amnesty Ireland knows perfectly well that women are not prosecuted for having abortions. If anyone is likely to be prosecuted it would be the practising abortionist who breaks the law,” she said.
Amnesty is purposely trying to create an impression that Irish women run the risk of going to jail if they opt for an abortion but they very conveniently fail to point out that similar sanctions exist in other European countries but, just like in Ireland, women are never prosecuted.
Additional reporting Christina Finn
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The list just goes on and on and on…….
The whole country has been failed by you and your colleagues Mr. Donnelly
@ferrett: The absolute cheek of Donnelly to ‘blame the country’. HE is the health minister, paid a very handsome salary to manage the health department – sorry Donnelly but the buck stops with you and you’re incompetent.
@ferrett: I would like to take this opportunity as an Irish citizen to apologise unreservedly for the homeless/homelessness crises/ health and everything thing else that’s wrong to Mr. Donnelly and his party colleagues in FFG. We the Irish people have failed our FFG government. Shame on us.
100yrs of FFG has certainly helped
@Shaun Gallagher: And with your people it would be ten times worse. Medical care should concern you rather than electioneering. Any actual clinical suggestions ?
@thomas molloy: What medical care? Medical care in this country is a disaster, is that also electioneering?
Could you have a look into your chrystal ball there and tell me when is donnelly going to get his finger out? The whole health system is a mess, I’d hate to get seriously ill.
@thomas molloy: With my people? I’ve voted for independent for the last 4 elections. So you are saying they are to blame
@thomas molloy: Yea but that’s hypothetical. Entry-level arguing Thomas.
The country did it huh. Not the politicians. How convenient.
Nope, not failed by their own country. Failed by you Minister Donnelly.
Zero accountability -
If by country you mean the government then yes 100%
Donnelly says this like he is an innocent bystander on the sidelines. That’s the calibre of politicians and their actual regard for the electorate.
Zero accountability by both the Government and CHI, more useless commitments will be made by the government and will be broken while children suffer and their parents continue to listen to Donnelly’s and Harris’s broken promises.
@john dennehy: donnelly is predicting in the first phase of quarter one, all the data shows that going forward towards the second trimester all the involved parties should be in a position to phase in the next commencement of actions, thus ensuring that by the second phase of quarter one all involved parties will be in a position to move forward strategically towards the stated goal of at least being at the next stage of commencement of the plan layed out in the original documents. Of course that depends entirely on the development plan laid out in the original document, which isn’t actually signed off on yet by the civil servants, being in operation.
@Michael o connor: I chuckled, very Monty Python !
@Michael o connor: Simon Harris committed in 2017 that no child would be waiting no longer than four months for spinal surgery in this country, Donnelly can predict all he wants but both Harris and Donnelly have failed to meet their targets, and the urgent care needs of the helpless children reliant on these two incompetent chancers.
I’m raging for those children in pain. It would serve them better if the Minister for Health arranged to fly them to one of the many countries with a functioning and effective health system for treatment in their actual lifetimes. Clear the waiting lists before you start selling the notion of new projects that certainly won’t be built in time to employ the current generation.
‘Sometimes other people are in positions that block us from being able to accomplish what we want.’
@Thesaltyurchin: LOL, it’s like Steven Staunton putting forward the excuse that Ireland lost because the other team had players trying to take the ball off them.
“Failed by their own country”
As a country we would have made damn sure their surgeries were done and no waiting lists.
So no Mr. Donnelly, failed by FFG party yet again.
What a disgusting spin to put on such a sad story.
People please dont vote for this horrible party
The Health Service needs an additional 1,000 beds per year just to keep up with demand on services, it got 162 in 2023. Stop and think about that for a moment. This means, year after year, it’s running into a deficit, the government are well aware of it and yet chose to do nothing about it. The effects are inevitable, longer queues, overworked staff, the appearance that they’re throwing money into a Health Service without achieving results. The Health Service is collapsing before our eyes.
@Boyne Shark: Where are the staff going to live? It’s not going into adequate housing either.
Issues like this should make those who constantly objected to, delaying and therefore tripling the cost of the new Children’s Hospital should be ashamed. Obstructing progress for political vote hunting should be stopped.
@thomas molloy: nope, Bertie aherns building it where they have instead of a new site off the N7 has massively delayed it. But Fianna fail had to get there cut of brown envelopes.
@Michael o connor: If you have evidence of corruption and are not just venting you should go straight to the police.
@thomas molloy: we have guards here in Ireland, don’t know where you are posting from.
Let’s lay the blame where it belongs – on the state run health care system. Let the state take over food production, and you get food lines. Let the state take over housing, you get housing wait lists. Same for healthcare. The same can fund (or partially fund) healthcare it cannot provide the service itself. Public servants are too incompetent for that
@Tom D: Those who won’t or don’t pay for their own health cover are piggybacking on those who pay for their health and also pay tax towards services.
@thomas molloy: poor troll, you need to be more subtle.
@thomas molloy: ur not that failed FF advisor with his multiple accounts on here by any chance???
Why would they give a FK?. Anybody who votes ffg Thats what you will get.
have your say