Ireland has decidedly rejected proposed changes to references on family and women in its constitution, shortly after France changed its constitution to include abortion rights.
Voters repudiated the family referendum with 67% voting „no”, and buried the care referendum in an even bigger landslide of 74%.
„The family amendment and the care amendment referendums have been defeated – defeated comprehensively on a respectable turnout”, said the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, on Saturday, hours before the full results were announced.
The scale of rejection spelled humiliation not just for the government but also opposition parties and advocacy groups who had united to support a „yes-yes” vote.
Critics said they ran a lacklustre, confusing campaign that perplexed voters and alienated progressive allies – a contrast to the seismic 2015 same-sex marriage referendum and 2018 abortion referendum that underscored Ireland’s secular, liberal transformation. Turnout on Friday was 44%, a sharp drop from 64% in 2018, reports the BBC.
The government had billed the votes – held on Friday to coincide with International Women’s Day – as opportunities to embed inclusivity and equality in a constitution dating from 1937.
Meanwhile, the referendums proposed changing article 41. The family amendment proposed widening the definition of family from a relationship founded on marriage to “durable relationships” such as cohabiting couples and their children. The care amendment proposed replacing a reference to a „mother’s duties in the home” with a clause recognizing care provided by family members.
The „yes” campaign mustered 32% support for the family referendum and 26% for the care referendum. And yet, there is little talk describing this as conservative backlash. Even some feminist and other progressive groups had urged „no” votes, calling the proposals vague or insipid.
The Lawyers For No group criticised the proposals’ wording and lack of legislative scrutiny and warned of unintended effects.
„This is an emphatic repudiation of what I think was unwise social experimentation with the constitution”, said Michael McDowell, a senator and former justice minister who was part of the group.
Some worried that widening the definition of family could affect rules on tax and citizenship. Others said expanding the burden of care from women to the whole family elided the state’s responsibility.
The defeat embarrassed the government and prompted calls for prominent campaign figures such as the children’s minister, Roderic O’Gorman, to resign.
However, the result is not expected to destabilize the ruling coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens. There will be no repeat of the referendum.
The Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said her party was „very much” in touch with public sentiment and blamed defeat on the government. „They didn’t collaborate, and they failed to convince.”
