Pro-life groups have slammed an abortion-supporting organisation after they issued a statement saying they ‘celebrated’ that 6,700 abortions had been accessed in Ireland in 2021.
The Abortion Rights Campaign, who were previously found to be funded by the George Soros Open Foundation which funnelled hundreds of thousands of dollars into Irish abortion supporters, sent out the celebratory statement as a press release.
The Reclaim group described the use of the word “celebrate” in relation to 6,700 abortions taking place as “vile”.
“It’s a pretty disturbing thing to say,” said Anna Buckley of the pro-life organisation. “Most people do not think abortion – the deliberate ending of a child’s life – is something to celebrate. The more abortion supporters reveal these extreme and unpalatable views, the more middle-ground voters regreat voting for repeal.”
Earlier, pro-life groups had described the confirmation of 6,700 abortions in 2021 as heartbreaking, and called on the government to act to tackle the climbing abortion rate.
The Life Institute has described the confirmation that some 6,700 abortions took place in 2021 as a “devastating indictment of a bad law that continued to produce horrific outcomes for both mother and baby”.
Spokeswoman Megan Ní Scealláin said that the State was adopting a position of “seeing no evil and speaking no evil” despite the continued rise in the number of abortions.
She said that it was “disturbing” that the Minister for Health was conducting a review of the operation of the abortion act without acknowledging the “shocking rise in the number of abortions since law came into operation in 2019.”
“The number of abortions continues to rise, despite assurances from the governmenrt during the 2018 referendum that abortion would be rare,” said Ms Ní Scealláin. “Less than 3,000 women travelled for abortions in 2018. We saw 6,666 abortions taking place in Ireland in 2019, 6,577 despite the Covid lockdown in 2020, and now Stephen Donnelly says that 6,700 babies were aborted in 2021.”
“Yet he seems to have no plan or even any desire to try to reduce the number of abortions. There is no acknowledgment that terrible mistakes have happened such as the abortion of a baby boy in the National Maternity Hospital after a misdiagnosis. There is no investigation into why we’re seeing a dramatic increase in women seeking abortions abroad because the baby has Down Syndrome. What we’re seeing instead is a steadfast refusal to even admit there is a problem.”
“It’s as if the State – and most of the media – have adopted the position of the three monkeys: they refuse to acknowledge in any way that the abortion law has been devastating for unborn babies, that it is indifferent to women’s real needs, and that it has produced outcomes which violate the serious promises made to voters in the repeal referendum,” she said.
“The death toll from abortion keeps rising, and will continue to do so until this government stops acting as if abortion is a social good. No reasonable person wants more abortions to take place yet we see that campaigners are pushing to scrap the 3-day waiting period which has been shown to reduce the number of abortions taking place annually by up to 18%.
“Figures released in response to a parliamentary question from Carol Nolan suggest that, in 2020 alone, almost 20% of women who attended GPs and clinics seeking an abortion subsequently changed their mind and did not go ahead with the procedure. Contrasting the number of initial consultations for abortion – 8,057 in 2020 – with the 6,577 abortions carried out that year suggests that more than 1400 women had changed their mind and did not go ahead with an abortion,” she said.
“Similarly, in 2019 7,536 initial consultations were provided while 6,666 abortions took place, suggesting that some 870 women changed their mind during the 3 day waiting period. So its very likely that we could expect a rise in the number of abortions taking place if the waiting period was scrapped. And the obvious question is why on earth any reasonable person would want that?” Ms Ní Scealláin asked.
“The truth that abortion campaigners want to ignore – or supress – is that most people do not see abortion as a good thing. Most people, because most people have some compassion and some common decency, would prefer if less abortions, not more, took place.”
“Stephen Donnelly needs to wake up to this reality – and start taking actions to offer women a better answer than abortion,” the Life Institute spokeswoman said.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín described the 6,700 abortions in Ireland in 2021 as “a heart-breaking loss of life.”
“Every day in Ireland the lives of 18 unborn baby boys & girls are taken. In the last three years just under 20,000 unborn babies were aborted. That’s the equivalent of 840 classrooms of children who are not here with us today because of the abortion law. Deregulation of abortion in Ireland and efforts to normalise abortion by the government have seen the abortion rate spike by 70% in just 3 years”.
“Every living human being should be protected. Every living Human Being should have Human Rights. Human Rights are by definition universal. We need to show love and protect those who can’t protect themselves. Right now in Ireland women are forced to give birth homeless, but the government will guarantee mothers the price of an abortion. This Pro Choice government implement economic and social policies that make mothers feel that they have no choice at all”.
“The Committee on the 8th Amendment heard that 85% of abortions happen because of Socio- Economic reasons. We need as a society to give mothers real and positive choices. That means providing the necessary socio economic supports to be able to raise their children to their full potential. We need to guarantee to mothers access to housing, to childcare, to a collocated maternity hospital that protects the lives of mothers. There have been 20,000 abortions in Ireland in the 3 years since the law was changed . And despite all the talk at the referendum in those three years the socio economic options available to tens of thousands of young mothers has radically disimproved,” he said.
Eilis Mulroy of the Pro-Life Campaign added: “Since abortion was legalised, almost all of the media commentary on abortion has focussed on widening access to abortion even more. Pressing for wider access to abortion is indefensible when you consider the massive number of abortions that have taken place since 2019.”
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