International Safe Abortion Day is September 28 and Belfast City Hall in Northern Ireland plans to light up green for the entire month in support of abortion. At the same time, the City Council is attempting to block pro-lifers from showing abortion imagery in front of City Hall.

Key Takeaways:

• A Belfast City Council committee voted to light City Hall up green to support abortion access.

• The decision must still be approved by the full council.

• A council committee also passed proposed bylaws to prohibit abortion imagery in the city center.

• The bylaws must be approved by the Department for Communities before being implemented.

The Details:

The Strategic Policy and Resources Committee of the Belfast City Council voted in favor of lighting up City Hall on September 28 at the request of the National Women's Council of Ireland. That decision must be approved by the full council, but it is expected to be. At the same time, the City Council is proposing prohibiting pro-lifers from displaying abortion images in Belfast City Centre.

Blocking pro-lifers

In February, a council committee passed proposed bylaws to silence buskers, street preachers, and pro-lifers.

The provisions would add fines of up to £500 against anyone making noise over 70 decibels or displaying graphic images in the city center.

Posters displaying the truth about the violence and destruction of abortion would be prohibited, however, the use of graphic images on promotional materials such as pamphlets would be allowed — but the size of those pamphlets would be dictated and they would have to carry a mandatory warning about the nature of the images, which show the horrifying aftermath of legalized abortion.

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Pro-abortion lights on City Hall

At its core, International Safe Abortion Day is about ensuring abortion is legally allowed at any time for any reasons throughout pregnancy, as if legalizing killing somehow makes it automatically 'safe.'

The pro-abortion National Women’s Council of Ireland told the council, “International Safe Abortion Day is a global day of action to demand access to safe and legal abortion care everywhere. The day highlights the public health importance of ensuring access to safe and legal abortion care for all those who need it.”

The group asked City Council members to agree to light up City Hall green "to mark progressive abortion law and policy across Europe and to stand with those across Europe who still experience harmful obstacles to abortion care" (emphases added). It said the green color of the lights is a call to safer and "more accessible abortion."

The reaction

A Catholic priest in Belfast fired back against the lighting of City Hall for abortion, calling it "grotesque" and "deeply offensive."

"This proposed spectacle is grotesque and deeply offensive to many citizens who value human life at all of its stages from conception to natural death," Fr. Paddy McCafferty from Corpus Christi Parish said in a letter to Belfast City Council that he published on social media.

"It is a disgusting abuse of an iconic building which is supposed to be a space for all persons of all views and opinions. It is not acceptable at any level and displays a deep seated ideological bias against and contempt for the pro-life community, which includes persons of varied religious and political persuasions."

He added that "Belfast City Hall must not become a billboard for such macabre and iniquitous propaganda which celebrates the murder of unborn babies."

What's Happening Now:

The lights are part of a coordinated effort across European cities. The Belfast City Council will vote at the next full council meeting on September 1.

As for the attempt to silence pro-lifers, the proposed bylaws still have several steps to overcome before being implemented, including final statutory approval from Northern Ireland's Department for Communities.