CV NEWS FEED // Thousands of Irish pro-lifers marched through Dublin at the 18th national All-Ireland Rally for Life.
The Rally for Life’s website stated the protestors’ goal was to mitigate the devastating consequences of Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum.
“We’re marching to demand the government acts as the heartbreaking rise in abortions continues – 10,000 abortions in 2023 alone. We’re joining together to demand they look at life-saving measures like support for women; extending the 3-day wait period; and a Heartbeat Bill,” the website said.
The rally’s organizer, Niamh Ní Bhriain, said, “People were told in 2018 that it [abortion] would be rare, precisely the opposite is happening” and added, “The Government needs to stop acting as a cheerleader for abortion and instead set up a taskforce to see why these numbers are rising so fast,” Ireland’s National Public Service Media reported.
The event featured Canadian-American singer Kaya Jones, who has gone public about how the music industry pressures young women to abort their children.
Abortion was formally banned in Ireland in 1861, according to the Irish Family Planning Association. In 1983, Irish leaders added the Eighth Amendment to their Constitution, which stated, “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.”
In 2018, Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins signed the law, The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, which legalized first-trimester abortions, abortion in the case of “a fatal fetal anomaly,” and in cases of either risk of death or “serious harm to the health” of the mother.
Before President Higgins signed the act, 100,000 pro-life protesters gathered in Dublin to encourage the government to protect life and maintain the Eighth Amendment. The rally featured Down syndrome activist Charlie Fien, who spoke against aborting children with Down syndrome to the UN in 2017.
