National Vigil for Life. June 8th. Merrion Sq.

Thousands of people are working hard to oppose the Government’s destructive abortion proposal. Thank you for playing YOUR part.

We simply must keep the effort up to stop this appalling legislation. As things stand, two psychiatrists, with an obstetrician on the sidelines, will be able to sign away the life of a child of a healthy mother. This is a travesty of good medicine.

There can be no question of pessimism on our side or resignation that all this is going to happen. We must oppose this at every step – before, during and after events in the Dáil and Seanad – and propose a positive alternative. We must never give up on the cause of human dignity.

So we urge you to do all you can to make the National Vigil for Life on 8th June a big success. This Vigil comes at the key moment with the Government producing the actual legislation. 

We must demonstrate the massive number of pro-life people in Ireland. Early June is a critical time and we need you to do everything that you can – now.Please get involved by attending yourself and also bringing as many others as possible.

Bring a carload or a busload! 

To organise a bus from your area, please telephone Denise on (087) 266 8702, Theresa on (085) 871 1100 or Maria on (085) 883 4636

You can order leaflets instantly to spread among family and friends here

For information on updates like the National Vigil For Life Facebook page and follow @natvigil4life on Twitter

Pro Life Campaign criticises Minister Rabbitte for attempting to suppress voices in abortion debate

The Pro Life Campaign has criticised the Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte over his remarks on RTÉ radio  when he said he didn't welcome plans by the Catholic Church to play an active role in the abortion debate.

Cardinal Brady, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland said at the weekend that the Catholic Church would get involved in the abortion debate should the Government attempt to introduce abortion in the coming months.  In response Minister Rabbitte said ‘I would hope we’re not going to see a situation where one church decides to weigh into the campaign in the political sense.’

Commenting on Minister Rabbitte's remarks, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock said:

“No church, faith-based group or any group should be intimidated out of the public arena when it comes to commenting on public policy, particularly on an issue as fundamental as the right to life. I would have thought it was partly the role of any Minister for Communications to encourage public discourse on important issues not try to suppress it.”

Ms Sherlock continued: “In the same interview, Minister Rabbitte also misleadingly implied that women were currently being denied necessary medical treatments because of the absence of abortion here.  This is a total misrepresentation of the facts. Ireland, without abortion, is a recognised world leader in safeguarding the lives of women in pregnancy.”

Pro Life Campaign welcomes decision of Donegal County Council to reject abortion

The Pro Life Campaign has welcomed yesterday's decision by Donegal County Council to reject abortion.  A motion debated at the Councilmeeting held in Lifford read as follows:

In keeping with the will of the Irish people, as emphatically expressed in the referendum of 1983, Donegal County Council opposes any form of legalisation of abortion in any circumstances

The motion was resoundingly passed by 17 votes in favour to just one vote against.  There were six abstentions.

Commenting on the result of the vote, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock said:

'The members of Donegal County Council have shown that they recognise that Ireland, without abortion is the safest country for women when pregnant. It is a tribute to the Councillors that they have seen through the misinformation that is currently being spread suggesting that that Ireland is obliged to introduce abortion.  This is simply not the case.  The people of Donegal should be proud of their local representatives for championing the rights of the most vulnerable members of society'.

Groups presssure Lancet editor to delay publication of maternal mortality research

Lancet, a leading medical journal, has just published a new study of international maternal mortality rates, which finds that the World Bank, the WHO and UNICEF statistics for maternal mortality were over 100,000 too high due to reporting and methodological problems.

But in a corrupt and brazen, and thankfully, unsuccessful, attempt to subordinate science to politics, ‘advocacy groups’ lobbied the editor of Lancet, Dr Richard Horton to delay the publication of the new study until after upcoming meetings of the UN Commission on Population and Development, the Women Deliver Conference and the next UN Assembly, which are scheduled to discuss maternal mortality.

What’s bugging these ‘advocates’? Dr Donna Harrison, President of the American Academy of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said of the new Lancet article:

"The study uses the best statistical methods currently available and clearly demonstrates that worldwide legalization of abortion is unnecessary to bring about significant decreases in maternal mortality. The American Academy of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynaecologists encourages the UN member nations to continue to develop even better statistical information by improving the identification of maternal mortality causality, especially induced abortion related mortality, which is most often underreported or misreported".

Where the UN bodies have been pushing for ‘safe’ and ‘legal’ abortion as the key to bringing improving maternal mortality rates, the new Lancet article does not. It found key causal factors improving maternal mortality – falling pregnancy rates in some countries, higher per capita income, higher education rates for women, and increasing availability of basic medical care, and in particular, ‘skilled birth attendants’.

Abortion and Ireland

IFPA 'Poll' Claims Nonsense

The Pro Life Campaign has dismissed claims by the Irish Family Planning Association that attitudes to abortion in Ireland have changed dramatically in recent years. The IFPA made its claim based on the findings of a YouGov poll commissioned by Marie Stopes, one of the largest abortion providers in Britain, which alleged that two-thirds of the public support abortion in certain circumstances.

Responding to the IFPA's take on the poll, Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said that the latest Marie Stopes sponsored poll is in keeping with all its previous polls. It makes no distinction between necessary medical interventions in pregnancy and induced abortion (which directly targets the baby).

Any survey that ignores this vital distinction is meaningless and adds nothing to the debate. It is complete nonsense therefore for the IFPA to claim the latest findings represent a dramatic shift in public opinion in favour of abortion.

The IFPA also claims that Ireland's abortion laws are out of step with most of Europe as though the laws in these countries were exemplars of human rights. Abortion in Britain, for example, is legal up to birth. Presumably the IFPA supports this barbaric situation, which completely ignores the humanity of the unborn child.

If we are going to debate abortion laws in Ireland, then let's also debate the laws in other countries and the latest peer-reviewed studies showing the negative consequences of abortion for women.

RTE Bias on Abortion

Scannal Programme was a Blatant Pro-Abortion Promo
24ú Feabhra 2010

RTÉ - Mícothrom agus claonta i ngaeilge agus i mbéarla araon.

It's no secret that RTÉ the tax-funded State broadcaster is openly hostile to the pro-life position. The station doesn’t even bother anymore to create the pretence of balance when covering life issues. The latest manifestation of this was on Scannal, broadcast on RTÉ 1 last Monday, 22nd February at 7.30pm. You can watch it on the RTÉ player if you care to.

Even the description of the programme on the RTÉ website lets the cat out of the bag. It states: “Scannal looks back at a story that gripped the nation and raised the issue of abortion once again, an issue subsequent Governments have failed to fully deal with through legislation”

The so-called failure to deal with the issue through legislation might have something to do with the fact that the majority of Irish people are opposed to abortion and that the controversial X case decision by the Supreme Court in 1992 failed to set any time limits for abortion and if legislated for would have to allow abortion up to birth.

Were the producers of Scannal remotely interested in balance they could have invited reasoned pro-life voices to make these and other points in defence of the right to life.

RTÉ insists on turning a blind eye to the compelling arguments against abortion. Whilst we heard about the difficult circumstances surrounding the X case and the injunction sought by the Attorney General at the time - and nobody belittles the emotional difficulties that faced Miss X and her family - we heard nothing on Scannal about the fact that the X case judges heard no medical evidence to justify the Supreme Court decision.

Similarly, we heard nothing about the health of women in the wider context of the abortion issue. For example in recent years, several studies have been published, and in particular a study from Finland in 2005, showing that women are more likely to commit suicide after having an abortion than whilst pregnant. One horrifying case that illustrates this is that of Emma Beck, a 31 year old English artist who committed suicide in 2007 after aborting her twins. Emma's suicide note read: "I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does."

In fact the link between abortion and negative mental health consequences has become so clear that the British Royal College of Psychiatrists recommended that abortion counselling leaflets be updated to include information about the latest studies showing the negative effects of abortion on women. Separately, research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2008, concluded that induced abortion is linked to an increased risk of mental illness in later life.

Importantly, the fact that Irish women receive all necessary medical treatments during pregnancy here - even if it unintentionally results in the loss of the unborn - was not highlighted on Scannal. Nor was the fact that despite having no abortion in this country, Ireland is rated number one in the world in protecting women’s lives during pregnancy, according to the latest UN/WHO report on maternal mortality. Ireland, for example, is a much safer country in which to be pregnant than say Britain or Holland, where unrestricted abortion regimes exist.

But RTÉ didn't see fit to take on board any of that. Why? Because it wouldn't have helped the agenda that RTÉ constantly pushes in favour of abortion.

RTÉ never reports on the brutality of what abortion regimes entail in other countries, like for example the fact that abortion is legal up to birth in Britain. Do we want to follow England's abortion regime - one of the most liberal in the world - where babies are aborted simply because they have 'disabilities' like hare lips and cleft palates? RTÉ seems to think we should considering the open way it promotes abortion without limits.

RTÉ has never once presented a programme that set out to challenge abortion advocates who believe that unborn children are deserving of absolutely no protection throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. Surely there is something very suspect here?

On every occasion without exception RTÉ builds it coverage of the issue around challenging the pro-life side to justify its position. This is a genuine scandal that the programme Scannal, if it was doing its job would investigate!

The way RTÉ treats the pro-life issue is becoming a major story in itself. If the station continues along the path of openly promoting abortion, pro-life activists will have no choice but to devote all their energies into making the public aware of the culture of ideological bias in RTÉ in favour of abortion.