READ: "Overturning Roe Gives Ireland Hope of Protecting Babies From Abortion Again" - Eilís Mulroy writes in LifeNews

REGISTER NOW: Upcoming PLC Network Workshop focussed on Leaders Ideas and Feedback for 2023

Dear Friend,

With the overturning of Roe v Wade in the United States in the past year, against all odds, and the unexpectedly large crowds that turned out to pro-life events in Ireland in 2022, let’s approach the New Year with renewed hope and determination.

We should never gloss over the challenges or setbacks that we face, but equally we must not act as though they are the full story.

With commitment, effort and focus, we can bring about change and start to turn the tide in the right direction. Legalised abortion relies on lies. The pro-life message on the other hand is hopeful and true and doesn’t depend on deception in order to prevail.

So as face 2023, let us each commit to devoting some time to the pro-life cause every week (even an hour). Imagine the impact that would have!

If you are not actively involved in the movement at present or would like to explore other areas that you might get involved in, drop us an email at [email protected] and we’ll be in touch with you early in January.

Wishing you and all your loved ones every blessing and joy for 2023!

From the Pro Life Campaign team

Millions around the world watched the footage in recent days of a woman being arrested for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham.

Isabel Vaughn-Spruce, was standing across the road from the abortion centre in complete silence, with no placards or outward signs that she was there on account of the abortion issue. Police officers however approached her and began to ask her what she was doing. When she informed the officers that she “might” be silently praying about the abortion issue, she was arrested and charged. 

After her release from custody, Ms Vaughn-Spruce said: “It’s abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind. Censorship zones purport to ban harassment, which is already illegal. Nobody should ever be subject to harassment. But what I did was the furthest thing from harmful – I was exercising my freedom of thought, my freedom of religion, inside the privacy of my own mind. Nobody should be criminalised for thinking and for praying, in a public space in the UK.”

Thankfully footage of Vaughn-Spruce’s arrest was captured on video and was seen by millions around the world on social media and on the news outlets that covered the story. The strong pushback on social media in recent days suggests that people are starting to get the message about the dangers of introducing so-called ‘safe access zones.’ The Orwellian air of someone being arrested and charged for the thoughts in their head as they silently pray proves that these new laws have nothing to do with protecting women trying to access abortion but are all about banning pro-life people from gathering in public places, including situations where they are silently and peacefully praying. 

The Government here intends pressing ahead with introducing an equally draconian law in Ireland. We must unite and oppose this out-and-out attack on basic freedoms that singles out pro-life people and discriminates against them.

Watch footage of Ms Vaughn-Spruce’s arrest here

The outgoing Master of the Rotunda Hospital reiterated in an interview with the Irish Times on Monday that 95 percent of unborn babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in his hospital are subsequently aborted. It is a horrifying statistic but one that was sadly predicted by pro-life campaigners in the event of the Eighth Amendment being repealed. In the interview, Professor Fergal Malone also dismissed the value of the three day waiting period before an abortion and suggested that “miscarriage is a more likely explanation” than women changing their minds, when trying to make sense of the sharp drop in the number of women who attend the second abortion consultation after attending the first one. Professor Malone presented no evidence for the claim he made that miscarriage was the likely reason.

Click here for link to a series of pro-life letters in The Irish Times responding to Prof Malone.