What with everything going on over the past few weeks, we thought it would be worth drawing attention to some what’s been written about it!
Firstly, we were glad to see that, at home, the annual Rally for Life, the first one to take place in person since 2019, got a great turn out – and some news coverage! Estimates for numbers at these marches usually vary wildly depending on who’s doing the estimating; so it’s nice to see mainstream news outlets like RTE report that there were thousands in attendance. In the Irish Times, Conor Pope wrote that
While there was no official estimate as to how many people attended the rally, the number easily ran into the thousands with the crowd stretching the length of O’Connell St from the monument to Charles Stewart Parnell close to the Garden of Remembrance to the statue of Daniel O’Connell by the Liffey.
It’s a good reminder of how many people in Ireland are willing to invest time and energy in doing what they can to promote the pro-life cause. It’s also good to see mainstream news outlets mention issues like the three-day waiting period, or interview and quote pro-life leaders and politicians – this article interviews both Cora Sherlock, and Niamh Uí Bhriain. It’s sometimes a little too easy to see where journalists’ sympathies lie, but it’s good that people will hear about these issues and about what pro-life activists in Ireland are doing at the moment.
The Rally for Life might also provide an opportunity to have a few one on one conversations with people you know, if the topic comes up. (Here are some blogs that might be useful for this: ‘Explainer: what is the law on abortion in the Republic of Ireland‘, ‘Explainer: what is the law on abortion in Northern Ireland‘, ‘Three kinds of conversations about abortion, and why you shouldn’t mix them up‘, ‘Being prepared for the conversations you don’t want to have‘, ‘Abortion bans do work: the Irish experience‘. Many of the posts in our ‘Better Conversations‘ tag also give conversational tips!)
Meanwhile, the seismic effects of the overturn of Roe, which we’ve written about here (it’s significance) and here (the details of the case that led to its overturn) have prompted some of the pro-life groups we follow to make statements (see a Rehumanize one here ) or put out resources for pro-lifers (like these Equal Rights Institute videos). It’s also led to some news stories that challenge stereotypes about pro-life people – like this one on LGBTQ pro-life groups, this one on the many pro-life people in the US who want to expand their social safety net in order to help pregnant women and babies, or this one in the New York Times about young women who oppose abortion (it includes short interviews with one woman whose pregnancy resource centre was vandalised, and a young pro-life atheist). These are all well worth a look.
Ciara
The Minimise Project 