SF have made some balls of this one. Any criticism of them is well justified IMO.
I, like many others, am conflicted on the abortion issue, but the stance of SF on this was very clear - until that farce last night.
Anyone voting SF because of their previous stance on abortion would be 100% justified in feeling that they have been royally screwed over.
It remains to be seen whether this will hurt them in the polls (lost voters replaced with Aontu types?) - but it should.
Im also conflicted and its a very sensitive subject that if you asked 100 people in private what they thought you'd prob find a lot of people would have a different answer than if you had a public show of hands. SF has scored a massive own goal With this. for reference, I have always voted SF. But with the direction they are going and a leadership who clearly aren't up to leading I won't be voting for them again and I know plenty who are feeling the same for different reason. im sick of the politics of just whatever the DUP say say the opposite, the political system here with power sharing is set up to fail.
The handling of the pandemic has been terrible from our govt in general not just from a SF point of view, but what it has done is shine a light on how broken our system is. I dont know who ill vote for when election time rolls around, I dont really know enough about Aontu but I will have a serious look at what they are about to see if it aligns with my feelings at the minute.
SF take mine and plenty of others votes for granted and therefore anything controversial they try and avoid it, not anymore for me.