(Photo (c) Pro Life Campaign)

The Pro Life Campaign’s National Conference took place in the RDS on 14 October. The keynote speaker at this year’s conference was Obianuju Ekeocha, founder of Culture of Life Africa, who has been an outspoken critic of how foreign aid schemes have been used to promote abortion in African countries. Ekeocha said:

There is something really condescending that a wealthy person […] or a wealthy nation, like the United States or Great Britain, could come to any African country and say to them, we’ll give you this amount of millions so you can bring abortion in because abortion is a choice, and healthcare. There is something really painful for an African like myself to consider that. We do respect that, in our culture, in our tradition, even from the way we speak our native language from one place to another, it is deeply ingrained into our native tongue[s]: the sanctity of life.

You can watch a video of the full conference here.

Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) are one of the newest pro-life organisations in the US. We have featured them here before, in interviews with their founder, Terrisa Bukovinac (here and here). PAAU have been in the news in recent months for their involvement in blocking an abortion facility, the Washington Surgi-Clinic, three years ago. Among those jailed for their involvement in this action is Lauren Handy, PAAU’s Director of Activism and Mutual Aid. Another prisoner is Herb Geraghty, Executive Director of Rehumanize International, who we interviewed back in 2019. Should you wish to write to them or their fellow activists behind bars, the address is here.

Over on the Rehumanize website, Sophie Trist has written this excellent blog post about the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine. Trist writes of the horrors perpetrated by Hamas in their massacre of innocent civilians in Israel on 7 October, and of the importance of condemning these atrocities (which, as she points out, not everyone seems able to bring themselves to do). But Trist also condemns Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza, which has already cost the lives of thousands of civilians. She puts it succinctly: Israel’s actions are ‘an atrocity in answer to an atrocity’. 

She quotes Isaac Saul, a Jewish commentator who has spent time living in Israel:

There is no way out of this pattern until one side exercises restraint or leaders on both sides find a new solution. Israelis will tell you that if Palestinians put their guns down then the war would end, but if Israel put their guns down they’d be wiped off the planet. I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t tell you what is true. But what I am certain of is that every time Israel kills more innocents they engender more rage and hatred and recruit more Palestinians and Arabs to the cause against them. There is no disputing this.

Trist doesn’t propose a simple solution (who can?). But her conclusion bears thinking about: ‘I reject the idea that empathy for Palestinians and support for their human rights and dignity equates to support for Hamas’s brutality. The first of many steps toward ending this cycle of violence is recognizing that both Israelis and Palestinians are human beings, with immeasurable worth — and the right to live in safety and freedom to nurture their families in peace.’ Targeting civilians, be they in a kibbutz or a refugee camp, is always morally indefensible and must be condemned by anyone who considers themselves consistently pro-life. (For one Irish pro-lifer’s reflection on the wider conflict, see Máirtín’s post from 2021.)

Finally, a reminder that this year’s Rehumanize Conference takes place online on Saturday 11 November. Based on previous conferences, this promises to be a fascinating event and well worth attending. More information here.