A pro-life meeting organised will take place this evening, October 24th, in Letterkenny and it will hear from a historian who has written a book on the Irish pro-life movement and who says that the fall of Roe v Wade shows that change on abortion is possible.
The event, organized as part of the pro-life Renewal Tour, will hear from a panel of speakers including GAA star Mickey Harte and from those working on the frontline to help women and babies who have a crisis pregnancy.
A special guest at the meetings will be speaker Jonathon Van Maren, a Canadian author, historian, and activist, whose book ‘Patriots: the untold story of the Irish pro-life movement’ has sold thousands of copies, and who will talk about what Ireland can learn from the recent overturning of Roe v Wade in the U.S., as well as about effecting cultural change.
Mr Van Maren will tell those attending meetings in Dublin, Cork, Castlebar and Donegal that the US Supreme Court decision “shows the importance of perseverance in cultural change”.
“Ireland was once a light to the world in her pro-life protections of both mother and child, and she can be so again,” Mr Van Maren said. “When the 8th was passed, it was a response by pro-life Ireland to Roe v. Wade. Now the 8th is gone – but so is Roe.”
“Cultural change is driven by those who care the most, and those who want to see life protected,” he said. “We need to be unafraid to speak truth to power, and to hold the authorities to account as abortion rates rise and as abortion provision harms mothers and babies.”
Mr Van Maren says that the 8th amendment saved hundreds of thousands of preborn babies from abortion and that pro-life activists shduld be proud of that achievement.
“They should also know that they can swing the pendulum back towards the protection of life. This is not, and never will be, a settled matter – and it’s obvious from the energy I’m seeing in Ireland that pro-lifers are determined never to give up on women and their children,” he said.
Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute who are organising the speaking tour, said that the fall of Roe v Wade had empowered pro-life activists everywhere – and that the shocking outcomes of the abortion regime thus far was the real spur to Irish pro-life activists to seek to change the culture.
“At least 21,000 babies have been aborted according to Junior Minister Mary Butler,” the Life Institute spokeswoman said. “That is more than the population of Sligo, one of the bigger population centres in the West. And that’s the death toll from just three years.”
“Or think of it this way: if the average size of an Irish classroom is 24 children, then Ireland has already aborted 875 average classrooms of children. They will never sit fidgeting, or draw messy pictures with crayons, or play games at morning break, because their lives were ended before they were born,” she said.
She urged the health minister to provide supports to women “to empower them to choose life” and said: “Stephen Donnelly needs to realise that for many women in crisis, abortion is not a choice at all”.
The Renewal Tour coincides with a new billboard campaign from Life Institute is urging that the 3-day waiting period before undergoing an abortion be retained, and the group says data suggests that scrapping the period for reflection may bring another sharp rise in the abortion rate.
The billboards, which can be seen in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kerry, Galway and elsewhere, reference the ongoing review of the abortion legislation, and says that retaining the 3-day wait period will ‘help women choose life’.
The message adds that ‘no-one wants 1,000 more abortions,” and the organisation says it is part of a ‘Time to Think’ campaign strongly opposing calls to remove the period of reflection from the abortion legislation.
Ms Uí Bhriain said that data released to Carol Nolan TD and Peadar Tóibín TD suggested that an average of 1,000 women every year changed their mind during the 3-day period between the first visit to a GP and returning to procure abortion pills.
“Voters were promised in 2018 that the 3-day period would be part of “strict guidelines” around the operation of the abortion act. The then Tánaiste Simon Coveney said that these “strict guidelines” were important in persuading what he called “middle ground” voters who had a “traditionally pro-life” perspective to support the repeal. How can the government now be giving a sympathetic ear to those who want the 3-day wait scrapped?” she said.
“Abortion campaigners. including the National Women’s Council, are pushing for the three day waiting period to be scrapped, but their demands ignore what we know to be true about the 3 day wait period – that it seems to reduce the number of abortions taking place,” she said.
“So its very likely that we could expect a rise in the number of abortions taking place if the waiting period was scrapped. And the obvious question is why on earth any reasonable person would want that?” Ms Ní Scealláin said. “What reasonable person would want the already shocking abortion rate to rise further? No-one wants 1,000 more abortions on top of the almost 7,000 abortions now carried out in Ireland each year.”
The must-see, compelling documentary on how the 8th was lost, Ireland’s Fall: The Abortion Deception will also been shown at the pro-life meetings.
Life Institute say that the Renewal Tour and the billboard campaign are centrepieces to an escalation of pro-life activity, including local newspaper adverts, social media campaigns and door-to-door leaflets.
“These meetings also bring activists in every corner of the country together to discuss how to forge a pro-life future by realising the strength of our cause, and the potential for change that lies in the enduring truth of the pro-life message,” Ms Uí Bhriain said.
