Pro-life campaigner encouraged by large turnout

John Reid

Pro-life activists were buoyed up at the weekend after the largest-ever turnout at the Pro-Life Campaign national conference.

More than 800 people from all across Ireland packed in to the RDS to hear news of the organisation’s fight for the rights of unborn babies in Ireland.

US-based Irish filmmaker Ann McElhinney delivered the keynote address in which she spoke about her soon-to-be-released film Gosnell, which documents the revealing story of convicted Philadelphia abortionist Dr Kermit Gosnell, described by ABC News as America’s biggest serial killer. 

Gosnell was an abortion doctor convicted of murdering infants born alive after attempted abortions, as well as the manslaughter of a woman who died during an abortion and of carrying-out dozens of illegal late-term abortions. 

Facts

Ms McElhinney warned about a lack of knowledge informing debate in Ireland on abortion, saying to the audience: “What you don’t know will hurt you. A lot of people in Ireland are debating this subject with very little information. People need to know about facts. 

“I was very disinterested and neutral on the whole subject of abortion but the Gosnell case really opened my eyes. 

“I’m a grown woman and I was profoundly shocked at what I learned about the methods abortionists use”. 

McElhinney said that “it’s very difficult to distinguish between what Gosnell did illegally outside the womb and what is allowed to take place legally within the womb. “There should be no talk of ‘restrictive abortion.’ 

Truth

Cora Sherlock of the Pro-Life Campaign said in response that the Gosnell trial “showed that when ordinary people were confronted with the truth of what happens in perfectly legal abortions, they were horrified at what is permitted in the name of ‘choice’”. 

Ms Sherlock also commented on the Government’s upcoming Citizens’ Assembly on abortion, saying: “It is a real tragedy that the business of next week’s assembly is not about expanding human rights but about taking them away from the most vulnerable and defenceless members of our society”.