The Life Institute has urged the “hundreds of thousands of people who voted pro-life in the referendum” to make abortion an election issue on Friday, warning that “unless pro-life TDs are elected to take measures to tackle the “spiralling rate of abortions” up to “100,000 abortions will have taken place by end of next Dáil term”.
Spokeswoman Sandra Parda made the call as the organisation boosted its Vote Pro Life initiative for Election 2024, which informs voters as to the voting record of TDs and “outlines the position of candidates on life issues across all 43 constituencies”.
She said that some 48,000 abortions had taken place since 2019: “there were 6,666 abortions in 2019, 6,577 in 2020 and 6700 in 2021 – before jumping to a shocking 8,156 in 2022 and then another 10,033 in 2023, with every indication from data released to Carol Nolan TD that another 10,000 were estimated to take place in 2024.”
“That’s 48,000 abortions in just 6 years, and unless TDs are elected to the next Dáil who will take serious measures to tackle the spiralling abortion rate, another 50,000 abortions will take place over the next 5 years,” she said. “How can anyone think this is a good thing? We need to make this an election issue, because it is a life or death issue – and change is so urgently needed.”
“100,000 babies aborted is a horrific number for a small country like Ireland, we urgently need to change the culture that is pushing women towards abortion and refusing to recognise the humanity of the unborn child,” the Life Institute spokeswoman said.
She said that “the media refuse to examine at the spiralling abortion rates and instead amplify the calls from some TDS to make the situation even worse by removing any time to think, such as the 3-day wait, while criminalising those who would seek to offer women other options at abortion centres”.
“Women are not being helped or given real choices,” she claimed, “instead we’re meant to be grateful for the ability to end the life of our own child, instead of getting the support we need. With collapsing birth rates and the failure to support mothers and babies, these polices are literally aborting our future. We need to Vote Pro Life to get the change that’s required.”
Both Labour and People Before Profit have included proposals to liberalise abortion laws in their election manifestos, and Ms Parda said it was shocking to see cross-party support in the most recent Dáíl vote for plans to legalise abortion up to six months.
“A lot of voters don’t realise how extreme the views of many TDs in the Dáil are,” Ms Parda said. “It was almost unbelievable to see a majority – albeit a slim one – vote for abortion to six months, including a Fine Gael TD along with Sinn Féin. It’s important that voters are informed before they mark their ballots as to where the candidates stand.”
The Life Institute said that it was “heartening to see that there were pro-life candidates in every constituency” and that “many smaller parties and Independents were taking strong pro-life positions”.
The Labour Party has said that “significant barriers remain for women seeking free, safe, and legal abortion” and that “the three-day wait period serves no purpose” and should be scrapped, calling on the next government “to trust the experts and implement the recommendations from Marie O’Shea’s review of Ireland’s abortion laws”.
However, Carol Nolan TD described moves by political parties to abolish the mandatory three-day waiting period to access abortion medication and to extend the 12-week limit to allow for abortion on request as “monstrous” and “barbaric” and asked “is 40,000 abortions since 2019 not enough?, according to the Irish catholic.
“Proposals to further liberalise abortion access up to and including abortion on request through all stages of pregnancy are nothing short of monstrous and barbaric,” she said. “They reflect a nauseating willingness to obliterate the reality of the unborn child and a desire to subsume her or his existence into an ideology of utter indifference. This is not compassion. This is cruelty writ large.
“Is 40,000 abortions since 2019 not enough? These proposals read to me as a manifesto for future trauma. I utterly oppose them. Women and children deserve better.”
Meanwhile, Bishop of Kerry, Ray Browne, has said in an election message that the fundamental value and dignity of human life in Ireland is being undermined at both the start and end of life.
“Each unborn child is precious, irreplaceable and unmistakably one of us,” he said.
“Sadly, in Ireland today, it is estimated that possibly one in every eight pregnancies are ended by abortion, and there is a campaign to extend the situations in which an abortion is legally permitted.”
On the Dáil’s recent decision to vote in favour of a “Final Report” that would support the legalisation of assisted suicide. Bishop Browne said the report went against the recommendations of the many medical bodies who care for the sick and dying.
“Legalising and thus normalising these deaths (allowing assisted suicide) will within a short time play on the minds of people in the final months/years of their lives, and of many others with major health issues (physical, mental, psychological),” he said.
“Assisted suicide is often presented as something that would be rare and exceptional. Once assisted suicide is accepted in principle, it becomes very difficult to draw a line. Many countries, which began by legalising assisted suicide on a limited basis, have moved on to widen significantly the scope of that legislation. I encourage all people to make a personal decision to always speak out against legalising assisted death/assisted suicide and euthanasia,” he added.
The Bishop welcomed candidates who were giving priority to “prolife issues”.
“In today’s world where medical advances and major progress have been made in caring for all at the beginning and at the end of life, surely, we can respect the right to life of every human being from conception in the womb to the moment of natural death,” he said.