Luke Silke, Melissa Byrne, EilĂs Mulroy, Clr Deirdre Donnelly, Obianuju Ekeocha, Wendy Grace, Jordan Brittain, Dr Andrew OâRegan
Hundreds attended the Pro Life Campaign National Conference in Dublin last weekend. The keynote speaker at the annual event held in the RDS was Obianuju Ekeocha, President of Culture of Life Africa.
The central theme of the conference was âgrowing the pro-life vote at election timeâ and several speakers, including a number of candidates in next yearâs local elections talked about ways of increasing turnout and the importance of getting more pro-life representatives elected to in turn influence public policy and overtime reduce the soaring abortion numbers..
PLC CEO EilĂs Mulroy exclusively revealed at the conference that after researching the issue thoroughly, the PLC has calculated that the Government spent âŹ46m of taxpayersâ money on abortion provision in the past four and a half years and not a single cent on promoting alternatives to abortion. She told attendees that this âscandal of monumental proportionsâ must be turned into a major election issue. A series of social media videos produced by the PLC urging people to âthink pro-lifeâ before they vote were played at the conference. These short 30 second long videos will be promoted across social media platforms in the coming weeks and months side by side with other projects, all designed to significantly increase the numbers voting pro-life at election time.
In her keynote address to the conference, Obianuju Ekeocha talked about the way Western governments make their support for developing countries conditional on these countries permitting wide-ranging abortion, something she referred to as "ideological colonisation".
Ms Ekeocha, who is a well known pro-life advocate internationally (with over 130,000 followers on X) also criticised these same Western governments for placing almost the entire focus on abortion rather than on improving maternal healthcare in African countries. She mentioned that in 2022, for example, the Irish government donated significant amounts of taxpayersâ money to radical groups who push abortion in developing countries, including âŹ300,000 to the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She said it was vitally important that the public across the West be informed about whatâs happening in their name and started calling for change.
Independent Cllr Deirdre Donnelly (Dunlaoghaire/Rathdown constituency) addressed the conference and encouraged attendees to get politically active to bring about positive change. She said: âI personally look forward to a day in the future where the lives of everyone, born and unborn are respected but in the meantime, we can work for changes in public policy to ensure proper supports are put in place to meet the needs of women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to promote positives alternatives to abortion. Itâs vital that we continue to intensify the pressure for practical changes.â
In a very moving address to the conference, Dr Andrew O'Regan, Senior Lecturer in General Practice and GP from Co. Kerry shared the story of his late infant son Liam O'Regan who was diagnosed with Patau syndrome, a life limiting condition before birth. He emphasised that every single life is worthy of dignity, respect and love, regardless of age, ability or disability or stage in life, saying: âThe politicians who are making the laws, many of them hear this term âfatal foetal abnormalityâ and they donât understand that this boy was not a fatal foetal abnormality, he was Liam OâRegan and he was our son.âÂ
Dr OâRegan encouraged attendees to continue to inform themselves, to remain active on the pro-life issue and to use their votes to protect life.Â
Outstanding contributions were also delivered at the conference by three younger members of the movement: Luke Silke, local election candidate for AontĂș, Melissa Byrne of Students For Life Ireland and Jordan Brittain of Students For Life of America. The contributions of all guest speakers are available here to view.Â
EilĂs Mulroy presenting an award to Trish OâSullivan, posthumously honouring her sister Kathleen Rogers for her dedicated and unceasing service to the pro-life cause
A special tribute was paid to Kathleen Rogers at last weekendâs Pro Life Campaign National Conference.Â
Kathleen, a remarkable and much loved pro-life volunteer, sadly passed away in September 2022 after a prolonged battle with Motor Neurone Disease.
EilĂs Mulroy paid tribute to Kathleenâs total commitment to the pro-life cause and noted the way she continued to speak up for life, right up to the very end of her life.
You can watch the tribute to Kathleen here and the presentation to her sister Trish OâSullivan, who thanked the organisers for posthumously honouring her sisterâs sterling and unflinching service to the cause of life.
Marie OâShea, Chair of the review of the abortion law
 The report authored by the chairperson of the abortion review, Ms Marie OâShea, was the focus of a meeting of the Health Committee on Wednesday. Ms OâShea appeared before the committee, accompanied by two researchers â Dr Catherine Conlon of Trinity College and Dr Deirdre Duffy of Lancaster University. Both are ardent abortion supporters.
The three-hour meeting was often repetitive and rambling. However, some noteworthy exchanges occurred which provide a window into how ill-informed the chair of this supposedly âevidence-basedâ and âexpert-ledâ review is. She passed a high number of pretty straightforward questions over to her two colleagues - questions that as chair of the review she should have been in a position to answer.
Much of the focus of the discussion was on the âthree-day waitâ, a legal requirement in law that a period of three days must elapse between a first and the second (final) abortion appointment. This gives a woman an opportunity to reflect on the decision, to mitigate against a potentially rash decision taken following the shock of discovering an unplanned pregnancy, and to achieve informed consent. It is a standard staple of abortion laws globally; in Germany there is a three-day wait with mandatory counselling, in Belgium there is a six-day waiting period, in Italy there is a seven-day waiting period.
When asked whether a similar mandatory waiting period to Ireland exists in other countries, Ms OâShea answered "not that I am aware of". This displayed a profound lack of awareness of other abortion regimes by Ms OâShea. She uninformedly tried to portray Irelandâs three-day wait period as uniquely out of step with other countries. This undermines her reportâs credibility even more and its recommendation to scrap the life-saving three-day wait period. After Ms OâShea misinformed the committee, Dr Conlon swept in to correct the record by acknowledging that waiting periods exist elsewhere.
During an exchange between Senator SeĂĄn Kyne (Fine Gael) and the researchers over why they had not interviewed a single woman who availed of the three-day wait period but chose to continue with her pregnancy, Dr Conlon claimed it would be âunethicalâ to interview such women. She claimed a research ethics committee wouldnât approve such an interview, with Dr Duffy describing such an interview as âtraumatisingâ for the woman. This simply does not stand up to scrutiny. In a voluntary academic interview, it would be entirely appropriate to try and speak with women who availed of the three-day wait. Moreover, the researchers have dealt with women who recalled their experience of genuinely traumatising situations, such as sexual assault, yet this was not considered âunethicalâ as part of their research. Itâs clear that the âindependentâ review is informed by selective, cherry-picked research designed to produce a particular ideological result, namely the removal of the three-day wait.
Later during the meeting, Deputy Peadar TĂłibĂn queried why the reviewâs chairperson had relied exclusively on an outlier study based on research from START Doctors which claimed 2% of women did not proceed to a second appointment, yet she ignored the HSE data (elicited through parliamentary questions) which showed 16.5% of first appointments donât result in a final appointment. The chair was clearly unable to answer the question, which led Dr Conlon to attempt to dominate the exchange as she repeatedly interrupted Deputy TĂłibĂn.
Official HSE statistics were bizarrely dismissed by Dr Conlon as being somehow inadmissible because they were not subjected to peer-review. This is conflating a primary source with published secondary literature. Every peer-reviewed paper is based on similar raw material. The fact this primary source data is official and was provided by the HSE lends it considerable credibility. It should be noted the abortion review report itself has not been subjected to peer-review or a process similar to a viva voce: it is unlikely Ms OâSheaâs report would pass such a process without requiring major corrections if it was subjected to serious academic rigour.
Later during the same exchange, Dr Conlon interrupted Deputy ToĂbĂn to try to muddy the waters on why 6,728 women didnât proceed to a final appointment in the first 4.5 years of the abortion regime. She relied on worn tropes that this statistic can be explained away by naturally occurring miscarriage, women who had abortions in hospital settings, or who had abortions in England. In each case, her claims do not add up and are nothing more than an attempt to draw attention away from the reality that thousands of babies are alive today because of the vital time offered by the three-day wait.
The heated exchange between Deputy TĂłibĂn and primarily Dr Conlon (while the chair, Ms OâShea, remained conspicuously silent) clearly illustrated that the people behind this review are not objective researchers trying to independently assess how the abortion law operates, but are in fact seasoned campaigners and partisan academics who have far exceeded their brief. When met with serious questions, Ms OâSheaâs colleagues rushed to shut down legitimate lines of questioning, shamelessly tried to justify their cherry-picking of evidence, and used sanitised language to mask the reality of the more gruesome aspects of the abortion process.
Throughout the meeting, a considerable amount of time was spent by Ms OâShea taking issue with being pressured by the Department of Health and government to complete her report, for which she received a handsome remuneration, even colourfully suggesting she expected officials from the Department to appear standing outside her garden. She described the governmentâs response to the report as âbizarreâ and âdisappointingâ. Minister Donnelly may well regret ceding the entire abortion review to a campaigning clique who have repeatedly embarrassed him throughout this process â such as when Dr Duffy hyperbolically claimed the abortion system was on the verge of collapse, prompting Minister Donnelly to publicly disagree with her by pointing to the ruthlessly efficient abortion system which claimed over 8,500 lives in 2022.
Following the conclusion of the Health Committee meeting shortly after 12.30, Ms OâShea, Dr Conlon, and Dr Duffy headed to the DĂĄil bar, where one of them posted a photo on social media of themselves toasting their dayâs work with G&Ts and pints of Guinness.
Not wishing to be unkind, Ms OâShea was clearly out of her depth at the meeting. This raises more fundamental questions about how the report was produced and who was consulted regarding having an input. We are now in an unbelievable situation where abortion policy formation has been outsourced from the Oireachtas to a small coterie of highly partisan campaigners. Fair-minded members of the Oireachtas must immediately stop humouring this farce.
You can read the full text here and please take a few minutes today to thank the Oireachtas Members who spoke up at the Committee. Â
Britney Spears says she had an abortion more than 20 years ago while dating fellow musician Justin Timberlake.
In her upcoming memoir The Woman In Me, set for release next week, Spears describes the pregnancy as a âsurpriseâ and claims Timberlake urged her to abort their baby.
Talking about the pregnancy, she writes: âFor me, it wasnât a tragedy. But Justin definitely wasn't happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren't ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.â
She describes the entire experience as âagonisingâ and  says: "If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it."
While Spears doesnât deny that in the end she herself decided to go through with the abortion, the point she makes about the pressure she was under to end the pregnancy is something thatâs all too common these days - particularly in the entertainment business - but is rarely talked about.Â
The reality of coercive abortion is something most journalists donât want to write about. They have no problem with passing references being made to Britney Spearsâ abortion story but if the conversation looked like it was starting to pose deeper questions about abortion provision and/or the state of our culture, they would immediately close ranks and shut down the debate. For our part in the pro-life movement, we must avail of every opportunity to challenge the media censorship so prevalent today and do our utmost to get the truth out to the public via every means at our disposal. Itâs a tough challenge but we shouldnât underestimate the progress already being made in this regard.
 With the Oireachtas returning, it presents a perfect opportunity to approach your local TDs and Senators and urge them to reintroduce some humanity into the debate on abortion. The Three-Year Review, a seriously flawed process which produced a one-sided and extreme report, will be considered by politicians in the autumn. Itâs important that we take action now.
We have produced a quick and easy Virtual Postcard for you to sign, which will automatically send an email to your local TDs. Use the button below to navigate into your county on our website and find your constituency.
Itâs also important to have meetings with your TDs. These can be as simple as dropping into your local TDâs advice clinic to outline your concerns. Click below to register to lobby your local TDs. Donât worry â weâll help you every step of the way with advice on making the appointment to points you might consider raising.
We are heartened by the number of people actively involved and interested in meeting their politicians to express their views. The People Before Profit Bill which regrettably passed at 2nd stage of the DĂĄil on 31st May must also be countered. Even the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, has said this Bill goes far beyond the recommendations of the Three-Year Review â which are already extreme in their own right.
It is crucial to engage with our politicians and remind them not to overlook the referendum promises. We need to fight to ensure our abortion policy is aimed at reducing the abortion rate.
Please take a moment to get involved in the Humanity Campaign. Remember even the smallest effort will make a big difference.
We are putting out a call for anyone in possession of any documents, photographs, correspondence, etc. relevant to the Irish pro-life movement throughout the decades. We are particularly keen to receive anything in your possession related to periods such as the 1983 referendum. A comprehensive history of the pro-life movement is yet to be written, but the historians of the future will need primary sources. We are asking for people to get in touch with the Pro Life Campaign if they possess such material (no matter how old or dusty!) to ensure it is preserved now and not lost to the ages.Â
Vital Signs is the e-newsletter of the Pro Life Campaign. We hope you and your families are keeping well in these unusual times. This email is to update you on what we have been working on recently, including news stories, project updates, and details of upcoming events. If you want to get in touch with us please do so by emailing [email protected]
