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Sunday, April 1, 2018
Sunday, April 1, 2018
| Track Code | Track Name | Entry | Scratch | 1st Post ET | 1st Post Local | Time Zone | Stakes Race(s) | Stakes Grade | T.V. Indicator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EQ | EQUIBASE | 48 | 0 | 9:05 PM | 9:05 PM | EDT | |||
| GG | GOLDEN GATE FIELDS | 72 | 0 | 3:15 PM | 12:15 PM | PDT | |||
| GP | GULFSTREAM PARK | 72 | 0 | 12:00 PM | 12:00 PM | EDT | |||
| SA | SANTA ANITA PARK | 72 | 0 | 2:30 PM | 11:30 AM | PDT | |||
| SUN | SUNLAND PARK | 168 | 24 |
ARTUR WIDAK/NURPHOTO/ZUMA PRESS
A vote this week on whether to repeal Ireland’s constitutional abortion ban has sparked an emotional debate across the country, on street signs, social media and television and radio shows. An anti-abortion group even erected a giant “NO” on a landmark hill on Ireland’s west coast.
But one voice, long dominant in Irish society, has spoken softly this time: the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
In the U.S., Catholic bishops and priests are prominent figures in the antiabortion movement, appearing at the annual March for Life in Washington and praying in front of abortion clinics. By contrast, Irish clergy have played a generally low-key role, appealing to the faithful to keep the ban through sermons and handouts at Sunday Mass but staying largely out of the public debate.
That reticence reflects an increasing public resistance to appeals to traditional faith, partly due to a wave of church-related scandals, ranging from clerical child abuse to church-run homes for unmarried mothers, where many were forced to give up their children for adoption.
“The church has to pay the price for the failures of priests and religious and bishops in the past,” says Bishop Kevin Doran, chairman of the Irish bishops conference’s committee for bioethics. “But we still have to continue calling for justice for the unborn.”
Along with Northern Ireland, Poland and Malta, Ireland is one of few European countries to outlaw abortion in all or most cases. Over 150,000 Irish women have traveled to the U.K. to terminate unwanted pregnancies since 1980.
Deep Debate
Polls show support for changing Ireland’s constitution to allow abortion ...
*Will not vote or refused to answer.
Note: Some results don’t add up to 100% due to rounding
Source: An Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll released May 16 of 1,200 respondents. Margin of error ±3 pct. pts.
Friday’s vote is expected to be close. A May poll by Ipsos Mori for the Irish Times found 44% of voters support repealing the ban, while 32% want to keep it and 17% are undecided. But the gap has been narrowing in recent weeks.
Irish secularization marks a deep change in a country where the church’s authority went largely unquestioned when the 1983 constitutional abortion ban came into force. In 1981, 93% of the Irish described themselves as Catholic. By 2016, that figure had fallen to 78%, with much of the decline having come in the previous decade.
The campaign leading the call to retain the ban is a close ally of the church, but has taken the clear lead in calling for the Irish to vote no.
When Catholic bishops take a strong position on an issue, public opinion tends to move in the opposite direction, and religion is especially unpopular among Irish youth, said John McGuirk, spokesman for the Save the 8th campaign, named after the eighth amendment of the constitution that instated the ban. ”If we were relying on the church to win this, it wouldn’t work," he said.
Ahead of the referendum, bishops have released pastoral letters, instructed their priests to preach on the sanctity of life and released a weekly handout in the churches on Catholic teaching. However, they have adopted a soft tone.
In his sermon, “a priest has to be sensitive to the fact that .... there might be women there who have had abortions,” said Bishop Doran in an interview.
“We have to care careful not to appear to be suggesting that the Catholic bishops have a monopoly on this” issue, he said.
The country has gradually been undoing the close relationship to the church that developed after Ireland gained independence from the U.K. in 1922. A 1972 constitutional amendment removed language recognizing Catholicism’s “special position” and in the 1990s the country decriminalized homosexual acts and removed a constitutional ban on divorce. Three years ago, Ireland became the world’s first country to legalize gay marriage by popular vote.
Ireland's Battle Over Abortion
The people of Ireland on May 25 will vote in a referendum on whether to repeal its ban on abortion, one of the most bitterly contested battlegrounds in the country. For both sides, it's more than a debate about abortion rights—it's a battle over health care, human rights, identity and values. WSJ's Niki Blasina reports.
Many campaigning to lift the ban see it as another, significant step in moving toward a church-state relationship more like the U.S. and other European nations.
“In many ways, we’re asserting ourselves as a republic,” said Catherine Murphy, a lawmaker for the Social Democrats, a left-leaning party that emphasizes the separation of church and state in its platform. ”The citizens are making decisions for themselves rather under a religious influence.”
The government is advocating a repeal of the ban, and has appointed a female cabinet minister who is a practicing Catholic and a mother of two to lead its appeal. Many others have also reconciled their faith with support for repeal.
“I come from a very religious background,” said Jonathan O’Brien, a lawmaker of left-leaning Sinn Fein who sat on the non-partisan committee that recommended the referendum. “But I don’t believe my personal beliefs should play a part. Terminations are part of a woman’s health care.”
The low profile adopted by the church troubles people like Fiona O’Hanlon, a 54-year-old doctor who is campaigning to retain the ban and lives in Cootehill, a small town close to the border with Northern Ireland.
Dr. O’Hanlon, who attends Mass, developed her opposition to abortion while working in the U.K. in the 1990s. She said the ease with which women terminated pregnancies there was one of her reasons for returning to Ireland.
“I was very puzzled as to why the Catholic Church wouldn’t be pushing it,” she says. “I think they should be talking about it more. They shouldn’t be afraid."
People walk past pro-life and pro-choice posters in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland, May 22, 2018. PHOTO: MAX ROSSI/REUTERS