Over 70,000 pro-lifers took to the streets of Dublin, Ireland, on July 1, 2017, to tell the government not to repeal the 8th amendment to the Irish Constitution. The 8th amendment gives an equal right to life to both pregnant women and their preborn children. Pro-life groups in attendance included the Life Institute, Youth Defence, and the Northern Ireland group Precious Life.
“This is an incredible, powerful day, when massive crowds of ordinary people turned out to Save the 8th, to say no to abortion and yes to Life,” Niamh Ui Bhriain of the Life Institute said. “We were expecting 50,000 but as the Rally moved through Dublin City, up to 80,000 people brought the city to a standstill as they joined in to Save the 8th. […] we can do better for mothers and babies than legalising something as barbaric and regressive as killing children before they are born.”
Ireland’s 8th Amendment of the Constitution Act took effect in 1983 after the Irish people were asked to vote on the country’s abortion laws. The amendment states:
The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.
It was passed with a 67% majority and has since been altered to say it does not limit the ability of a person’s freedom to travel to receive an abortion in a different country. Abortion became a criminal offense in Ireland thanks to the 8th Amendment and the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861, which criminalizes the killing of persons. Pro-abortion groups in Ireland want to repeal the 8th amendment in order to make abortion legal.
After the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act was passed in 2013, a woman in Ireland was able to receive an abortion if her life was at risk due to physical illness (two physicians, an obstetrician, and another specialist must concur and consult the woman’s general practitioner), an emergency illness (one doctor must diagnose and perform the abortion), or suicide (three physicians must agree: an obstetrician, a psychiatrist with experience treating pregnant women, and a second psychiatrist after a consult with the woman’s general practitioner).
For pro-abortion groups, this act wasn’t good enough. They have been fighting for abortion on demand, despite the violence of the procedures and the violation of human rights that abortion is. One of the most common second-trimester abortion procedures is described by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino in the video below:
Pro-abortion group Action for Choice said they want the government “to give an immediate commitment to call a referendum to repeal the eight amendment and to introduce abortion legislation that give women living in Ireland full control over their reproductive choices.”
With pressure from the United Nations to repeal the 8th amendment and make abortion legal, pro-lifers in Ireland still refuse to give in and legalize the barbaric procedures. David Quinn, founder and director of the Iona Institute for Religion and Society, told Breitbart News that the large crowd at the rally “sends a very strong signal to the Government that they are going to meet tremendous resistance in their campaign to remove from our Constitution the right to life of the unborn.”
