A look at the Youth Defence Campaign in and leading up to the 1992 General Election, which was held on the same day as three Abortion Referenda
From a 1993 Group of The Party Of European Socialists publication of “A Collection of Speeches Of Dick Spring” (in pdf format) a Speech on “Abortion and The Right To Life” from the 1992 Abortion Referendum Campaign which was held in the initial aftermath of the X-Case. It’s still highly relevant today. Click on the image or the link.
From the 1992 Abortion Referendums on The Right to Travel, The Right to Information and Abortion a leaflet from a group called ‘Support Life Ireland’ urging a No Vote in all 3 Referenda.
From 1991 a leaflet on Abortion Information from SPUC (The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children). Its the final page of the leaflet that is the oddest with a rather unusual graph comparing the number of children born to unmarried mothers to abortions.
From a 1992 Progressive Democrat leaflet Dessie O’Malley outlines the position of the party regarding the 3 Abortion Referenda to be held on the same day as the General Election. Whilst they asked for a YEs vote for the Right to Travel and Right to Information, they asked for a NO vote on the Abortion issue. Many of the reasons for voting against the Referendum outlined by O’Malley are just as relevant today as they were then.
From the 1992 Abortion Referendum(s) Campaign a flyer for a public meeting in Foxrock Community Centre sponsored by Pro -Life Foxrock District featuring William Binchy and Berry Kiely.
From the 1992 Abortion Referenda a leaflet from ‘Frontline’ “A Coalition of Organisations dealing with the Issue and Consequences of Unplanned Pregnancy”.
The Coalition consisted of Cherish, Doctors for Freedom of Information, Dublin Well Woman Centre, Irish Family Planning Association, Open Line Counselling, Psychologists for Freedom of Information and The Union of Students of Ireland.
They were urging a No vote in the Abortion Referendum as it was ” a simplistic and ambiguous approach to a complex issue” and were urging a Yes vote for the Right to Travel and Right to Information.
From 1992 , in the aftermath of the X-Case a leaflet on Abortion from The Socialist Workers Movement intended for Secondary school students. The leaflet was never distributed.
You’ll find a more detailed explanation of the leaflet here
Many thanks to the CLR for use of the leaflet.
A fairly brutal pro life leaflet from the 1992 Abortion Referenda. Under the guise of’ Abortion -The Bishops Statement’ headline we get lines such as “The Supreme Court Judges who approved abortion in the X-case committed the mortal sin of murder… ” , “we must not have innocent blood on our hands like Albert Reynolds”
The leaflet goes on to ask for people to vote for everyone except Fianna Fail, even though some of the parties would have been pro choice.
From the 1992 Referendum on Abortion, The Right to Travel and The Right to Information, a Leaflet from Let Live Crusade- “Vote for Life – not for death!” Vote No – No – No. The leaflet also mentions the General Election that was held the same day.
The contact for the group was a Priest, Fr Leonard Coughlan in Church Street, Dublin 7.
From the 1992 Referendums on the Right to Travel, Right to Information and Abortion a Leaflet from Youth Defence /Pro Life Movement urging a No vote against all three.
Its interesting to see the arguments against Travel and Information.
More Abortion related leaflets
From The 1992 Referendums Campaign, The Government Information Leaflet Referendums on “The Right to Life, Travel and Information”
I’ve uploaded it in pdf here or click on the image to launch.
From the 1992 Abortion Referendum Campaign a leaflet from the “Alliance for Choice”. The leaflet urges a No vote on the Abortion Referendum, and a Yes vote for the right to travel and a Yes vote for the right to information.
Labour Youth and Young Fine Gael were amongst the members of the Alliance.
From the 1992 Abortion Referendum a leaflet produced by the Dublin Abortion Information Campaign.
The referendum took place in the aftermath of the X Case. The Leaflet is advertising a Rally and also asking voters to..
VOTE NO to this attempt to reverse the Supreme Court ruling. It allowed a 14-year old girl, pregnant by a rapist, the right to have an abortion rather than face suicide.
The proposed wording would condemn some women to death.
VOTE YES to the right to travel for abortion. 5,000 13TH do each year, but at present they can be stopped.
VOTE YES to allow women information on abortion, and counselling on all the options in a crisis pregnancy.
From the 1992 General Election in Westmeath, Independent candidate Stephen Price.
An Abortion Referendum (Right to Travel , information etc) was held on the same day which led to quite a number of pro-life Independent candidates.
This in part due to Fianna Fail , which had been previously seen as Pro-Life falling out of step with SPUC and others. This in turn led to the setting up of
a number of Parties such as The Christian Principles Party, Christian Solidarity Party and The National Party.
Stephen Price polled 747 votes.
The 1992 abortion referendum had 3 separate ballots.
The first regarded Abortion itself. Which was defeated through a mix of people who felt it went too far and others who felt it didn’t go far enough.
The Second was to do with the Right To Travel. It was passed.
The Third was to do with the Right to Information. It was also passed.
The Referendum arose in essence from issues surrounding the ‘X’ case.
The newly formed Democratic Left give the arguments for a No to Abortion, Yes to Travel and Yes to Information. The leaflet also gives a background as to why we had the referendum.
Irish Election Literature 
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