By Sarah Mac Donald - 12 July, 2014
The Pro Life Campaign staged an awareness-raising gathering outside the Dáil earlier this week to mark the anniversary of the passing of the Government’s abortion legislation.
They also launched a new Simple Truth campaign to challenge what the PLC describes as the Government’s “consistently misleading” presentation of the new abortion law.
At the launch, PLC Deputy Chairperson, Cora Sherlock accused the Government of a consistently misleading presentation of the abortion law which she said had resulted in widespread public confusion over what the new law actually involves.
“The Simple Truth campaign is about challenging the Government’s spin to get the truth out about the kind of abortion regime that has been introduced,” Ms Sherlock said.
The initiative consists of five separate graphics covering different aspects of the new legislation which will be mainly promoted as part of a social media campaign.
“The Taoiseach has stuck to the mantra that the legislation was necessary to save women’s lives. But the Government knows perfectly well that Ireland, without abortion, was one of the safest countries in the world for pregnant women,” the PLC spokeswoman said.
She added that the Government knows that there is “not a shred of medical evidence to support their decision to introduce abortion in the case of threatened suicide.”
“The Simple Truth campaign is about drawing attention to the shameful way the Government has behaved on this life and death issue,” the PLC said.
One of the areas the campaign focuses on is the Government’s refusal to accept an amendment to the Abortion Bill ensuring pain relief be administered to an unborn baby during a late term abortion.
Another issue addressed in the campaign is distorted opinion polls and the way they can create a false impression of support for abortion by failing to make a distinction in the question between life-saving medical interventions and induced abortion (that deliberately targets the life of the baby).
“We are one year on from the most devastating piece of social legislation that has ever been introduced here. The Government would like the pro-life movement to fade into the background, accept that abortion will become more and more normalised in our society, and resign ourselves to the fact that there is nothing we can do about it. But that’s just not going to happen,” Cora Sherlock warned.
