On Monday, 1st May, approximately 5,000 people turned out to the annual March for Life from St Stephen’s Green to Molesworth Street, directly in front of Leinster House. The successful event heard amazing testimony from Dr Kirsten Fuller, Deputy Peadar Tóibín, Amrita Kaur, and others. Most importantly, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital to express their strong opposition to the extreme proposals contained in the biased three-year review report.
Attendees heard the fantastic testimony of the importance of freedom of conscience from Dr Kirsten Fuller, a GP based in Clonmel. From Peadar Tóibín, they heard of the tremendous work being done by pro-life politicians in the Dáil, and particularly the growth of his party Aontú. Amrita Kaur told her powerful story of receiving life-saving abortion reversal pills after she immediately regretted taking the first abortion pill, which allowed her to have her baby who has brought so much joy to her life.
A recurrent theme of the March for Life was a rejection of the flawed research and radical proposals contained in the report from the three-year review. From the beginning, the review was a deeply flawed process which listened only to the whims of pro-abortion campaigners whilst excluding the perspective of pro-life organisations and parliamentarians. Due to this flagrant disregard of the very basic principles of fairness, pro-life citizens cannot accept this review as “independent” or “objective”.
The importance of pro-life votes at the next election was highlighted by several speakers. Pro-life citizens need to make their voices heard and no longer allow politicians to treat them with contempt. Pro-life votes cannot be taken for granted anymore; they must be hard-won and we expect our elected representatives to proactively push for positive pro-life measures in the Dáil – not simply to restate how they voted in 2018.
