Together For Yes Co-Directors, from left, Ailbhe Smyth, Orla O'Connor and Grainne Griffin at the launch of their poster campaign in Dublin Pic Maxwells

THE Together For Yes campaign group has denied that ‘No’ campaigners have ‘stolen a march’ on them in the poster war ahead of the abortion referendum.

The umbrella group launched its posters calling for a ‘Yes’ vote today, several days after ‘no’ posters began appearing on lampposts around the country.

Asked about the ‘No’ side’s apparent head start, Together for Yes co-director Orla O’Connor said there’s six weeks to go in the campaign and “people are only now really starting to engage in the discussion on the referendum.”

She said Together For Yes posters will be going up around the country over the next week.

The poster reads: “Sometimes a private matter needs public support, Vote Yes”.

The ‘No’ side have posters that claim “In England 1 in 5 babies are aborted” and others questioning if repealing the Eighth Amendment will be a "Licence to Kill?"

The Together for Yes campaign was asked it is more difficult to fight the campaign on the more abstract message on its first poster.

Co-Director Ailbhe Smyth said: “We think that our posters are very clear and we wanted absolutely to give people that that sense of the logic, the reasonableness and the information.

“So what we’re saying is this is private, this is personal. This is not about sloganeering.

“This is very much about expressing that sense of what’s required here,” she added.

Ms O’Connor said the message they are promoting with the posters is that the decision for a woman to have an abortion “should be between a woman and her doctor.”

She said that she believes the referendum will be close but added: “What we’re hearing from all around the country is that people in Ireland are compassionate and they do care about women and they want to show their support in terms of removing this from the constitution because they know that the Eighth Amendment causes harm to women.”

She also said: “We hear the stories of women who have had to travel, women who are taking abortion pills on their own in secrecy and I think that’s going to be really important as the next six weeks go.”

Together For Yes say they have raised €170,000 so far for their campaign out of a target of €500,000.

Online Editors