(Source: @OireachtasNews)

On the 8th of March 2024, the Irish people voted by the largest majority ever (73.9%) against a proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland. The proposal before the people was to replace a provision recognising the contribution made by woman “by her life within the home” to the common good, and endeavouring to ensure that “mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of her duties in the home”, with a text recognising the importance of care between family members.

On the same day, the Irish people voted by the third largest majority ever (67.69%) against a separate proposal to expand the definition of the family from being founded on marriage to being founded on marriage or “other durable relationships”.

Neither of these issues has any direct relevance for abortion, or other pro-life concerns. However, I am very interested in how exactly these referendums played out, and what it means for pro-life introspection and strategy going forward. In particular, I think these results on what would broadly be considered quite progressive proposals contradict some of the still-lingering narratives about why, exactly, the Irish people voted six years ago to remove Constitutional protection from unborn babies.

Narrative #1: The people were duped by the media

There is a strong sense amongst many in the Irish pro-life movement that media bias is a huge reason for our current abortion regime, and for continual softening of people’s views towards abortion. It is certainly true that the Irish and international media are strongly biased towards legal abortion. However, for these particular referendums, the media bias was for my money just as strong if not stronger. Virtually the entire journalistic class supported the Amendments, and in contrast to the abortion issue, there were no pre-existing organisations that were dedicated to defending the current Constitutional articles as they stand. The opposition to these amendments came as an assorted bunch of poorly-funded conglomerates of disability rights activists, religious organisations and a smattering of politicians – and yet they prevailed against a strongly biased media.

Why are Irish people susceptible to media bias on abortion, but not two far less controversial “progressive” proposals which (almost certainly) would have had no material impact on anyone?

Narrative #2: The politicians sold us out

It is certainly true that political opposition to the abortion referendum and legislation in 2018 wasn’t great – no party officially opposed the referendum, and most members of the Oireachtas (Parliament) supported the referendum with even more supporting the resulting legislation. However, a sizable minority of Fianna Fáil opposed the 2018 referendum, along with a decent number of Independents and two members each of Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. The 2024 referendums, however, had the support of every political party in the country with the exception of Aontú (which has one elected member of the Oireachtas) and the fledgling Independent Ireland party (which has yet to stand for election as a party), and only a minority of Independent members of the Oireachtas opposed them.

Why was a lack of political support to blame for a Yes vote for abortion, but nonetheless yielded resounding No votes for these referendums?

Narrative #3: The NGO sector bought the referendum

Ireland has a large number of mostly publicly-funded Non-Governmental Organisations, which were strong campaigners in favour of the referendums in 2018 and in 2024. Furthermore, these very NGOs were arguably instrumental in having all these referendums run in the first place. While these NGOs are precluded by law from using public money to support one side of a referendum, the fact of the matter is that they are active, and influential, in Irish public life. Much has been made of the fact that these NGOs can’t really claim to be representative of the Irish people in light of the results of the recent referendums – but leaving that issue aside, a question remains:

Why were NGOs that were so successful in apparently ensuring a Yes vote in 2018 so wholly unsuccessful in 2024?

Narrative #4: The Yes side lied

The truth was definitely manipulated in 2018, by campaigners on both sides I might add, but to this day some of the untruths and predictions floated by supporters of Repeal can really smart. In 2024, the same accusations of misinformation by the Government and their allies were just as widespread, however, and this time had even more  credence. Ms Justice Marie Baker, a member of the Supreme Court and Chair of An Coimisiún Toghcháin (the Electoral Commission set up to oversee referendums) went so far as to describe the Government Minister for Media’s summary of the existing (and remaining) Constitutional wording as “an incorrect statement of the law”. Ms Baker’s comments were not widely reported, and other similar incorrect statements by prominent members of the Yes side were also largely unchallenged – leaving us with yet another question:

Why did lies and manipulation work in 2018 but not in 2024?

The answer

I think the answer to all four questions is the same: the Irish people knew what they were voting for in 2018, and chose to vote in favour of abortion, with their eyes wide open. The narrative that people didn’t understand, they were scaremongered, they were manipulated, they were tricked by the media, is completely undermined by Friday’s votes. The Irish people can ignore media bias, lying politicians and clamouring NGOs when they want to. They chose to introduce abortion in Ireland.

The way forward

What does all this mean for the pro-life movement? I think it provides yet more evidence that the only way forward for the pro-life movement is to convince people of the basic case against abortion: unborn babies have an equal right to life with born people. Irish people don’t support abortion because they don’t know what we enlightened pro-lifers know. They support abortion because they don’t believe the unborn have the same right to life as you or I. We have lots of resources to help you make the basic case, and if you have particular challenges or questions we can help. You can also sign up for one of our workshops if you’d like to learn more. We’re in this for the long haul – we’d love to have you on board!

Muireann