Folks, since BB didn’t yet cover it: for thousands of people every year, today is either going to be a glimmer of hope, or a devastating blow.
I seriously hope Ireland will today repeal the eighth amendment. I have dear friends over there. Some of the stories they told were devastating and disturbing. I also got into argument with anti-abortion campaigners there. It wasn’t nice.
Either way, fellow mutants, the poll is still open for about an hour. If you know anyone on the island, cross your fingers, and get in touch with them. If they haven’t voted, they definitely still should go right now.
Also, if you can, have a look at the #hometovote hashtag.
Have a good towel day, and a happy celebration of the glorious revolution of the 25th of may.
Let’s wear some lilac flowers on our lapel.
And #repealthe8th.
Basically, it forced 3500 women a year to go abroad to seek medical treatment ending a pregnancy.
Quite a number of cases became known to the public in which women were not able to end their pregnancy in a safe and secure way, or at all, despite truly gruesome circumstances. I don’t want to reiterate any of them, you can search the web easily for case reports.
Reportedly, American evangelical groups and so-called “activists” tried to weigh in on the referendum, using social media, including promoted tweets, ads and the like. Also, reportedly, some of the groups just tried to troll both sides, poisoning the debate by further polarisation.
As far as I know, Facebook and Twitter, and also YT, tried to implement measures this time to stop people outside of Ireland to buy political ads influencing the mood in Eire.
Just FTR, it seems that the overwhelming majority voted yes. I’m really happy about this.
I came her to yell at you about how Americans treat prisoners poorly enough with a Cruel and Unusual proviso, but… um. Instead I have nothing to say but: Hear, hear.
I don’t care what your politics are. Abortion is a question of medicine and it has but one correct answer.
I’m not sure @LutherBlisset is American. BB has an international readership.
That said, as an American, I adamantly support this reform precisely because I know my government is run by misogynists who’d cheerfully further our march to Gilead, and American evangelicals don’t just want an American theocracy, they want a global American.
I’m sensitive to sticking my nose in the sovereignty of other countries, especially as the citizen of an imperialist nation, to the point that I refrain from commenting on a lot of things that go on abroad. But human rights is a human matter, not a national one, and people of good conscience should stand together on them wherever they reside and wherever they’re threatened.
Don’t let the assholes who grind people down divide and conquer the rest of us with the artifice of flags.
I’m not American. But in my experience BB is very US-focused when it comes to politics. And while I knew about the abortion ban in Ireland I did not associate the phrase ‘the 8th’ with that at all.
And while I am firmly against meddling in the internal affairs of other countries (not just for purely moral reasons, too: the lack of this crucial notion made the thirty years’ war so thoroughly horrifying) having a very firm opinion is a perfectly reasonable and, indeed, praiseworthy thing. Other than expressing my opinion with some intensity, I think that this is a terrible injustice only the Irish can make right.
You did remember correctly. I’m a continental European.
Also:
Think so, too. And none of my expressed opinion, ever, and definitely, falls under the category of “meddling” with other countries’ democratic processes.
Targeting specific groups via ads or content pushing, however, that’s something else completely.
If I bought time on national television, promoted tweets on twitter, Facebook ads, and newspaper pages dedicated to overthrow The Orange One, that would be meddling, I presume.
If I wrote an op-ed on BoingBoing for legalising abortion in Ireland… Well, I don’t think this would count as meddling, but some peeps could argue differently.
I’m really, really happy for my Irish friends. Some of them had babies recently. The idea alone that you are forbidden to end a pregnancy even if you knew your child would not survive birth haunted them. This is a real concern. Another close friend of mine, not in IE, had six weeks of uncertainty if their child would be terminally ill, and used genetic tests which just became legal a while ago to exclude the possibility. They went through a special hell, and contemplated the termination of the pregnancy if the test showed a significant certainty. Both are biologists and know how to deal with probabilities and statistical tests. However, special hell.
No-one takes the step of abortion lightly. And if someone ever again tries to tell me this, to my face, they would be into a stern talking to.
But in my experience BB is very US-focused when it comes to politics. And while I knew about the abortion ban in Ireland I did not associate the phrase ‘the 8th’ with that at all.