Ireland is one of the most pro-life countries in the world — let’s keep it that way

International abortion groups, aided by an American activist billionaire, are hard at work to force abortion into Ireland, one of the most pro-life countries in the world. Under current Irish law, the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act states:

The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.

Ireland stands out among developed nations by explicitly acknowledging the dignity of the preborn and the legal protection they are due. What is at stake if Ireland removes protection for the preborn? One of the most pro-life countries in the world will become a nation that allows the violent killing of its most vulnerable. Discrimination based on disability or circumstances of conception will determine if children are born or killed in the womb. Preserving the Eighth Amendment is not merely a matter of politics; it is a matter of life and death.

While abortion activists campaign for elective abortion-on-demand for any reason, they claim to be concerned primarily with the so-called “difficult cases”— when the mother’s health is compromised, when a child is conceived in rape, when a child is diagnosed prenatally with a disability. The unequivocal response to these insidious abortion arguments is that abortion is never necessary to save the life of the mother; taking the life of an innocent human being does not heal the trauma of rape; and killing a disabled child is deadly discrimination that has no place in a civilized society.

While pro-life groups in other countries work to implement incremental changes to raise awareness about the injustice of abortion and protect the preborn, Ireland stands as an example of what is possible. Instead of merely banning abortions after the point that preborn babies undeniably feel the excruciating pain of the violent procedure or trying to protect babies once they have a heartbeat, Ireland recognizes the right to life of all preborn babies in all circumstances.

Far from being a backward nation that endangers pregnant women, Ireland has seen a decrease in maternal deaths since the 8th Amendment. In fact, between 1989 and 1991, after abortion was banned in Ireland, the country had half the maternal mortality rate of England and Wales—without killing preborn babies in order to give women life-saving treatment. Ireland’s maternal mortality rate has been 2 per 100,000, one of the lowest in the world. Additionally, the United Nations ranked Ireland as “one of the safest places in the world for a mother to have a baby.”

Women who do develop life-threatening conditions such as cancer, sepsis, or pre-eclampsia during pregnancy are never denied life-saving medical intervention. Sometimes that care requires the premature delivery of the baby, but the treatment of the mother never requires ripping apart a living child in the womb or crushing a child with a beating heart to death through the suction catheter of a high-powered vacuum (shown below, narrated by former abortionist, Dr. Anthony Levatino):

1st Trimester Surgical Abortion: Suction (Aspiration) D & C

Despite the international pressure, the Irish people continue to stand for life. Earlier this year 80,000 rallied in the streets of Dublin calling for the defense of the 8th, and pro-life groups are going door-to-door to discuss abortion issues with their neighbors. After the most recent National Life Canvass Day, Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute  wrote, “This referendum will firstly be decided in the human heart, and… there is no substitute for going to the doors to talk to people and having those vitally important conversations about retaining our constitutional protection for the right to life of both mother and baby.”

A vote to repeal the Eighth would be a vote to allow for the killing of a particular group of human beings, people who cannot cast a ballot or speak on their own behalf. Under no other circumstances would the world stand by for such a vote, let alone actively fund and promote a vote for the death of thousands of preborn babies. Ireland is one of the most pro-life countries in the world. Let’s do our part to keep it that way.