Pro Life Campaign launches election initiative for #GE16

 

The Pro Life Campaign is encouraging voters to give their support to candidates who will work towards retaining the 8th Amendment.

Pro-life volunteers held an awareness event outside the Dáil yesterday evening to launch the Campaign’s election video entitled “Your Vote Matters – Use It To Protect Human Life”. The video is being shared on social media and has already been viewed more than 130,000 times.

Speaking about Pro Life Campaign activities in the run up to the General Election, Deputy Chairperson of the group, Cora Sherlock said:
“We are hearing every day from candidates throughout the country that the abortion issue is coming up on doorsteps much more often than anticipated. They also admit that it is pro-life and not pro-choice supporters who are raising the issue.”
Ms Sherlock said: “I am not at all surprised that voters are raising the issue. Abortion is not something that people are going to raise lightly given the sensitivity of the issue but a significant chunk of the electorate have been following the debate closely and are concerned by the entirely one-sided presentation of the issue in politics and the media and at the way some members of the outgoing Dáil went out of their way at the last election to say how ‘pro-life’ they were, only to turn around and vote for abortion.
“Pro-life voters are rightly more cautious this time around. The memory of how many Fine Gael TDs broke their pre-election pro-life promise in 2013 is fresh in their minds, but so too is the fact that there were principled members of the Dáil who kept their promise and ended up being expelled from Fine Gael for voting against abortion.
“Our election video ‘Your Vote Matters’ is reaching pro-life voters throughout the country to remind them of the importance of using their vote to protect the 8^th Amendment. Fine Gael and others like to pretend the pro-life vote is not all that significant. But the massive numbers that turned out to pro-life vigils and rallies in recent years is only a small glimpse of the true strength of the pro-life vote. After what happened in 2013, pro-life voters will be judging candidates by their record rather than their words. In this election, the pro-life vote is likely to play an important role in key marginal constituencies and could well have a significant impact on the outcome of the election.”
The new Pro Life Campaign video is called “Your Vote Matters – Use It To Protect Human Life.” It can be viewed here


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Pro Life Campaign launches election video for #GE2016

The Pro Life Campaign today launched a new election video for voters who want information about the stances of General Election candidates on the 8th Amendment.

Speaking about the launch, Deputy Chairperson of the PLC Cora Sherlock said:
“We only have to recall the pro-life vigils and rallies in recent years to get a sense of the vast numbers of people who are concerned about this issue and where our elected representatives stand on protecting the right to life. We are inundated with requests at present from members of the public for information on the stances of candidates in the forthcoming election on the issue.
“Our supporters are looking for assistance in distinguishing between candidates who say they are ‘pro-life’ and candidates who have a track record in defending life. After the way Fine Gael TDs broke their pre-election pro-life promise in 2013, pro-life supporters are rightly much more caution about accepting the word of candidates.
“We are currently compiling information so that voters will have accurate and detailed information before Election Day on the positions of election candidates. The video we are launching today is just one of the ways we are spreading the word and encouraging people to use their vote to protect life.
“There is a noticeable tendency in much of the media to blame the 8^th Amendment for everything whenever abortion is in the news. It’s easy to do that if the focus is only on one side of the story. It is only fair that the pro-life side would also get a hearing too and that the tens of thousands of lives saved as a result of the 8^th Amendment would also feature prominently in the debate.”






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PLC welcomes passing of pro-life motion by Kerry County Councillors

The Pro Life Campaign has welcomed the passing of a motion in Kerry County Council yesterday, calling on the Government not to take any action which could lead to change or repeal of the 8th Amendment.

Commenting on the motion which was passed by a majority of 10 to 1, PLC spokesperson Cora Sherlock said:
“The 10-to-1 majority passing of this motion is to be welcomed. By stating that the Government should not interfere with the 8th Amendment, the Councillors have acknowledged that every human being should have their rights protected in Irish law, whether born or unborn.
“The 8th Amendment is responsible for saving the lives of tens of thousands of people in Ireland today. We must work towards a society where this protection continues, and where the necessary financial, social and other supports are put in place so that no woman feels she must resort to the sadness of abortion and the loss of her unborn child.”


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PLC says Minister Varadkar only listens to one side of the story on abortion

The Pro Life Campaign says Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has yet again called for repeal of the 8^th Amendment to allow for abortion where babies have a terminal illness, even though he has never once agreed to meet with parent of babies who continued with the pregnancy in similar situations. The PLC was responding to the Minister’s latest call today for repeal of the 8^th Amendment.

Pro Life Campaign Deputy Chairperson Cora Sherlock said:
“Minister Varadkar comments on abortion every other day but he has never taken the time to meet with families who have continued with their pregnancies when their babies were diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. It is extremely regrettable that the Minister sees fit to campaign so stridently on this issue without making sure he has heard both sides of the story. It is shameful how one-sided Fine Gael have become on this issue.”


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“Minister Reilly must defend 8th Amendment before UN Committee,” says PLC

13^th January 2016

The Pro Life Campaign has said that the Minister for Children must ensure that his comments before a UN Human Rights Committee this week represent all children in Ireland, born and unborn.
Spokesperson Sinead Slattery said:
“The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides explicit protection for the rights of the unborn child in international human rights law, highlighting in its Preamble that the Child needs special safeguards and legal protection, ‘before as well as after birth’. The 8^th Amendment fulfils this requirement by guaranteeing the equality of the unborn child in Irish law, and protecting their most basic right of all, the right to life.
“Any criticism that the UN Committee makes of this aspect of Irish law should be roundly rejected by Minister Reilly. Instead, a robust defence of this life-saving provision should be provided as it is abundantly clear that the 8^th Amendment, the Life Equality Amendment, is responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives since its introduction.”


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RTÉ’s wall to wall bias on abortion deserves to be an election issue, says Sherlock

The Pro Life Campaign has strongly criticised RTÉ’s treatment of the abortion issue following last night’s interview on the Late Late Show with the incoming Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Professor Fergal Malone. The Pro Life Campaign accused RTÉ of repeatedly pushing the case for abortion and “censoring the devastating personal stories of women who regret their abortions and of families who came under intense and inappropriate pressure from medical staff to abort their son or daughter but refused.”

Commenting about last night’s programme, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock said: “It is far from acceptable that RTÉ only ever presents the case for abortion and completely blanks the other side of the argument. The Master of the Rotunda is free if he chooses to only tell one side of the story but RTÉ is legally obliged to present both sides.”
Ms Sherlock continued: “I know several families who were pressured and in some cases literally bullied by medical staff to abort their babies but refused. I know one woman who hasn’t worked a day in over ten years after an abortion where she heard her baby cry. The heartbreak that some people experience after abortion is simply unbelievable.
“But RTÉ thinks it’s perfectly okay that these and other harrowing stories from a pro-life perspective should be censored at every turn from listeners and viewers. It is a scandal that the country’s national broadcasting station feels it can behave in such an appallingly undemocratic way.
“It has reached a point where the deep-seated bias at the heart of RTÉ deserves to be an election issue. People are tired of the wall to wall bias every day. Licence fee paying members of the public certainly deserve better. The conduct of RTÉ on abortion is shaping up to become a very big story in itself in the coming months. And that’s as it should be.”


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Minister Fitzgerald “completely out of touch with electorate on abortion”, says PLC

1st January 2016

The Pro Life Campaign has said that comments by  Minister Frances Fitzgerald and Deputy Paschal Donohoe on abortion are further proof that this Government is completely out of touch with the electorate when it comes to addressing the needs of those facing unplanned pregnancies.

Commenting as part of the PLC’s New Year message, Deputy Chairperson Cora Sherlock said:

“It’s a very sad state of affairs when the first message of the new year is one that highlights the determination of some Government Ministers to target the lives of the most vulnerable members of Irish society.  There is something very unseemly about the way Minister Frances Fitzgerald insists that Fine Gael can ‘deal with’ abortion with or without the Labour Party. Tens of thousands of people are alive in Ireland today thanks to the 8th Amendment. It is a life-saving provision, not a political football.”

“Minister Fitzgerald is being deliberately disingenuous when she distances herself from the term ‘abortion on demand’. She knows, as well as all others involved in this debate,  that any repeal or dismantling of the 8th Amendment would result in widescale abortion over time.”

In terms of what 2016 holds for the pro-life movement,  Ms. Sherlock had this to say:

“The huge numbers of people becoming involved in the Pro Life Campaign is a sign that Minister Fitzgerald and those who want to repeal the 8th Amendment are drastically out of step with the electorate. It is high time for the Government to take a step back and work on the ways they can help families keep their babies instead of constantly talking about abortion,” she concluded.

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