Eilis Mulroy
Three really important elections are set to take place in the coming months – the local and European elections in early June, and a General Election sometime this year or early next year, at the latest.
All three elections will determine who represents us for the next five years. It’s why from a pro-life standpoint we have to do everything we can to help elect as many pro-life public representatives as possible – representatives who will boldly speak up for life and work together to bring about meaningful changes to reduce Ireland’s rapidly increasing abortion rate.
Efforts
The efforts made between now and election day to encourage people to ‘think pro-life’ before they vote will play a big part in deciding whether more pro-life representatives are elected and whether real progress is made over the course of the next five years in shifting the focus away from the present government policy of promoting abortion at every turn, to a situation where information is not withheld from women about alternatives to abortion but instead is actively encouraged.
“It’s really important, as pro-life supporters, that we do our level best this year to make it to the march”
On Bank Holiday Monday May 6, the annual March for Life takes place in Dublin. It is perfectly timed to coincide with the upcoming elections which happen just one month later. Among the guest speakers at the march will be pro-life stalwarts Carol Nolan TD and Dr Calum Miller, a graduate of Oxford Medical School and well known media commentator.
The main focus of this year’s march will be encouraging voters across Ireland to vote pro-life. Having a massive turnout at the event is vital for getting the message to voters and focussing minds on the importance of voting pro-life on election day.
Word travels fast when an event is successful whether the mainstream media report on it or not. So it’s really important, as pro-life supporters, that we do our level best this year to make it to the march and to encourage family and friends to come along with us as well.
Pushback
As the results of the recent ‘family’ and ‘care’ referendums showed, voters – many of whom are pro-life – are looking for answers and starting to push back against a political system that for too long has refused to listen to their concerns.
When people voted in the last Local Elections in 2019 and General Election in 2020, very little had come to light about what was happening under the new law. But so much has changed since then. We now know the stark and terrible reality of how the new abortion regime is operating.
Irish abortions have increased from 2,879 in 2018 to over 10,000 last year, based on HSE replies to parliamentary questions regarding the soon to be published abortion figures for 2023.
There’s the fact that an outlandish €46 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on abortion provision in the first four years of the new law taking effect, with not a single cent of it being used to promote positive alternatives.
We have to work extra hard to reach voters who would be inclined to vote pro-life if they hear the message about the importance of doing so”
Ordinary voters are reliant on us to inform them about these developments. They’re certainly not going to hear about what’s happening from RTÉ as we learned once again last week when the woefully one-sided RTÉ Investigates programme on abortion was broadcast.
We make the mistake sometimes of thinking that people who share our views on abortion will automatically vote pro-life, but that’s not the case. But the reality is with so many issues competing for peoples’ attention – particularly at election time – we have to work extra hard to reach voters who would be inclined to vote pro-life if they hear the message about the importance of doing so between now and election day.
A few weeks out from each election, the Pro Life Campaign always publishes a comprehensive Voter Guide, featuring a list of all election candidates and where they stand on abortion and other right to life issues.
As well as serving as a useful guide to voters, having such a comprehensive list ensures that genuinely pro-life candidates are rewarded for their stance, while reminding candidates who support abortion that they stand to lose votes over their position.
Key
The key in the coming weeks is ensuring we maximise the number of voters who ‘think pro-life’ as they enter the polling booth come election day. If we do our job well, we will see the results in the increased number of pro-life representatives elected.
In the 2019 Local Elections, an excellent candidate who was also staunchly pro-life, failed to get elected by a single vote. The person who got elected in his place, sad to report, was a strident pro-abortion campaigner. It’s a reminder how every vote counts and how the efforts we make in supporting good candidates – even if what we do is very small – could in the end make all the difference.
A successful march on May 6 will help galvanise support in the critical weeks before the election, from the coverage it hopefully receives, to the encouragement it gives attendees to pull out all the stops for candidates who share our values on the pro-life issue. Let’s hope it goes really well. It has an added importance this year with the three elections just around the corner.
Efforts made between now and election day to encourage people to ‘think pro-life’ before they vote will play a big part in deciding whether more pro-life representatives are elected”
It’s a reminder how every vote counts and how the efforts we make in supporting good candidates – even if what we do is very small – could in the end make all the difference”
Eilís Mulroy is Chief Officer and spokesperson for the Pro-Life Campaign.