Thousands of people in Dublin participated this week in the March for Life Ireland, which was held in response to recent recommendations calling for protections against abortion for preborn children and women to be erased.
Lawmakers in the Republic of Ireland recently admitted to a massive increase in the number of abortions committed, and yet, they are still looking to expand abortion even further. In addition to removing the current three-day waiting period, some legislators want to legalize abortion up to birth. Abortion was legalized in 2018, and currently, preborn children are protected from abortion past 12 weeks. But the legislation to remove gestational limits from abortion has been advancing, even though voters were originally told that the 12-week limit would remain.
Marchers wound their way through Dublin before ending at Leinster House, seat of the Oireachtas, or the parliament of Ireland. There, the march concluded with a rally, where pro-lifers criticized efforts to continue pushing abortion onto the largely pro-life nation.
“The number of abortions jumped a devastating 25%, just in the last year,” Aontú leader and TD for Meath West Peadar Tóibín told the crowd. “In the four years that the law has been in place nearly 28,500 babies have been aborted. It’s the equivalent of 1,228 classrooms for children. It is the equivalent to the population of Kilkenny City. When the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael campaigned for abortion to be introduced, they identified specific protections and safeguards, yet less than five years later, it looks like the government is seeking to dismantle what few protections and safeguards were included.”
Photo: Pro Life Campaign
Additionally, speakers at the rally encouraged pro-lifers to work towards better representation, as there are significant numbers of pro-life voters in Ireland whose voices are being ignored.
“More than 1 in 3 voters voted pro-life in the 2018 referendum and many ‘Yes’ voters at the time favored a more restrictive abortion regime than currently exists,” Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said at the march. “As the results in some marginal constituencies showed in the general election of 2020, many pro-life voters used their votes to elect candidates who backed the pro-life position. Given the stances of the main political parties in bending over backwards to appease the most extreme elements of the pro-abortion movement, we will be undertaking a massive drive to turn out even more pro-life voters in the next election to ensure better representation for the issue in the Dáil. It is a vote that if properly mobilized could have the deciding call in many constituencies on who gets elected and who doesn’t.”
