Dr Ruth Cullen A leading pro-life campaign has welcomed figures indicating a further drop in support for removing the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution in a referendum this month.
An opinion poll, published on May 6 by the Sunday Independent/Kantar Millward, revealed that 45% of respondents say they intend voting ‘Yes’, and 34% say they will vote ‘No’. The survey also disclosed that 18% of respondents are undecided as to how they will vote, while 4% of respondents refused to answer.
Commenting on the findings, Love Both spokesperson Dr Ruth Cullen said that the “poll shows another significant slide in support for the Government’s proposal and an encouraging increase in support for retaining the Eighth Amendment”.
No surprise
“The results are welcome but don’t come as a surprise. They are in keeping with what we’re hearing every day on the ground, namely that more and more voters are starting to realise that the Government’s proposal is far more extreme than they ever anticipated it would be. People are actually shocked when they realise that repeal would leave zero legal protection for unborn babies in the Constitution,” Dr Cullen said.
The recent figures show a 6% increase in respondents voting ‘No’, and a 2% decrease in those voting ‘Yes’, since an April 20 Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll.
“Clearly, voters don’t want abortion on demand but repeal would make it inevitable. The Government has tried to hide the reality of what their proposal contains and gone to great lengths to present it as something entirely different. But the truth is getting out and today’s poll results certainly bears that out,” Dr Cullen said.
“This campaign is far from over. There may well be fluctuations in the polls between now and polling day. We remain very confident that the public will ‘Vote No’ on May 25.”