Head of “Catholic” Group Calls on Ireland to Legalize Abortions

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jan 18, 2018   |   11:54AM   |   Dublin, Ireland

The head of an American pro-abortion group is urging Irish Catholics to support abortion on demand.

In a column for the Irish Times, Jon O’Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, which is not affiliated with the Catholic Church, said it is time for Ireland to stop being a pro-life nation.

Ireland is under intense pressure to repeal its Eighth Amendment, which protects unborn babies’ right to life. Abortion activists, backed by some of the world’s richest men, are pushing the pro-life country to legalize abortion on demand.

In December, a biased government committee recommended that Ireland repeal its Eighth Amendment and legalize unlimited abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. A referendum vote on abortion is expected in May or June, prior to Pope Francis’s visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families. Abortion activists are afraid that the Catholic leader’s visit could influence voters to support unborn babies’ right to life.

O’Brien claimed that Ireland is hurting women by not allowing them to abort their unborn babies:

For more than three decades Catholics have seen how this draconian law has punished and shunned Irish women – how it has forced those with the means to travel abroad for the healthcare they needed.

They have witnessed its very real consequences for the lives of women, including Savita Halappanavar, and know there cannot continue to be more deaths like Savita’s. They feel they must speak out against the immorality of this law.

Archbishop [Eamon] Martin says we should journey with women and support them with what we know is often a tough decision to continue a pregnancy. But to be truly compassionate we must be there for women irrespective of what choice they decide is ethical and right for them.

The tragic case of Savita Halappanavar has been misrepresented over and over again by abortion activists. They claim she died because a hospital denied her an abortion. However, government investigations and three independent reports later revealed that there is no evidence that an abortion would have saved her life. Instead, the investigators found that hospital staff neglected to provide proper care for her.

O’Brien also claimed that most Catholics support abortion on demand; it is church leaders who continue to push for bans on abortion.

“The hierarchy may try to sway Catholic voters into believing that a vote for women’s conscience is wrong. But many good Catholics support a woman’s right to choose because of their faith, not in spite of it,” he wrote.

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These statements do not match with recent polls, though. A 2017 poll by the Irish Times/Iposos MRBI found that just 24 percent of voters said they would support a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment and support abortion on demand through the second trimester. Consistently, American polls also find that most people support significant restrictions on abortion.

O’Brien claimed the country just needs to “trust women” to make their own decisions about their bodies and families. But abortion does nothing to truly help women. Legalizing abortion in Ireland only will cause more women and children to suffer and die. Pro-lifers estimate that the Eighth Amendment has saved approximately 100,000 unborn babies’ lives from abortion in Ireland.

Legalized abortion devalues human lives by allowing unborn babies to be slaughtered in the womb. It opens the door for women to be pressured and forced to abort their unborn babies by people unwilling to support them. Women and their babies deserve better than that, and Ireland has recognized that for decades. Through its Eighth Amendment, Ireland recognizes that love and support, not death and destruction, are the best answer to the world’s problems.