As the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment creeps closer, another Irish college has voted to keep their pro-choice mandate.
DITSU (Dublin Institute of Technology Students’ Union) is the latest students’ union to vote overwhelmingly to support a repeal of the eighth amendment as 83 % of the voters chose to keep the union’s pro-choice mandate.
Although the DITSU council passed a motion "to support the campaign towards repealing the 8th amendment of the Irish Constitution" in 2016 a referendum was brought forward for students to decide whether or not this policy should be maintained or changed. The union’s constitution dictates that this must remain the union’s stance for five years.
Over 3,000 students voted - 2,510 voted to support repeal and 532 voted against. The University Times spoke to Aisling Cusack, USI Vice-President, who was delighted with the news but wanted to remind students of how crucial the next number of weeks will be:
...with just 73 days away until the referendum, its important that the book doesn’t stop with mandates...Students’ Unions need to make sure their members know the facts and reasons to repeal the 8th. We need to keep talking to our friends, families and colleagues about the importance of getting this atrocious law out of our constitution.
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Last Thursday's International Women's Day march saw a number of student unions and hundreds of students from DIT, UCD, and TCD protesting to support the repeal campaign.
