The repeal of the Eighth Amendment by a two to one majority, swiftly followed by the extreme legislation promised by the government during the course of the referendum debate, might give the impression that Ireland is now a firmly pro-death country and the pro-life movement is finished. There are, however, many reasons to those who adhere to the laws of God and nature on this matter to have hope for the future.
1 The huge mandate the government claims is nowhere near as strong as it pretends.
Two thirds of those who voted did so in favour of repealing the Eighth. The government claims this indicates huge support for its liberal abortion regime. However, exit polls at the time of the referendum showed that of those who voted ‘yes’ only half approved of abortion on demand. They had simply bought into the lie that the only way to help women in the so-called hard cases of rape or when the child wasn’t expected to live long was by repealing the Eight. This means that currently one third of the electorate opposes abortion in all circumstances and a further one third only supports it in far more limited circumstances than was recently legalised and would presumably be supportive of seeing the regime severely curtailed. This is a very strong base from which to work for positive change.
2 Despite what some claim abortion is not now a constitutional right.
It is possible to work for change – preferably to ban it altogether but at the very least severely restrict it – because despite claims to the contrary the people of Ireland have not enshrined in the Constitution a new right to an abortion. That this falsehood was made repeatedly during a recent Dáil debate – a falsehood that no one in the chamber and most certainly not in our pro-abortion mainstream media made any effort to correct – does not change the fact that it is untrue. When the Eighth was removed it was replaced with a section that says ‘Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.‘ This does not give a woman the right to an abortion; instead it grants the government of the day the right to legislate as it chooses. The ‘may’ in that new section of the Constitution is important. It gives the government the authority to introduce, as it has, a wildly liberal abortion regime; but it also gives it the authority to ban it altogether. If those who are pro-life refuse to vote for politicians who are pro-abortion come the next general election much can be done to affect change.
3 Liberal Democracy is starting to crumble around the world.
Democracy is a good thing. But it comes in many forms. What is currently in place around most of the Western World is what is termed ‘liberal democracy’ – democracy infused with liberal ideology. And that is an ideology that is at its core self-destructive, mainly because it despises the values upon which Western civilisation was built. It particularly despises Christianity, even though our society was founded on Christian principles. But liberal democracy sees Christianity as simply one religion among many and indeed regards many of its basic tenets as being essentially evil, especially in the realm of sexual morality. The current culture of death emerges directly from this form of democracy. However more and more people in the West are waking up to the insanity of embracing an ideology that calls for them to kill their own children and reduce their own population and then open their doors to floods of outsiders with very different values and beliefs. Media commentators label this awakening as ‘populism.’ But it is simply a form of democracy that values the native culture of each individual society. To the terror of the liberal elites it is spreading throughout the West as peoples begin to see the toxic nature of what these elites have been pushing down their throats for decades. There is every reason to hope that Ireland will soon begin to wake up as well – especially when the inevitable horror stories start emerging from our home-grown abortion clinics.
4 Abortions need doctors and very few of our doctors want to perform them.
So far less than 200 GPs out of over 3000 have signed up to be involved in this regime of death. Many have not signed up because they did not become doctors in order to deliberately kill innocent human life. They are to be applauded for their principled stand against evil. However many more have no principled objection; they simply want to wait and see if there is a backlash against their colleagues who are already cooperating in the slaughter. This is why the government is so afraid of protests outside these clinics and at once began to talk of exclusion zones. It is afraid that not only will they scare off new killers but they may lose the ones it already has. But it may find enacting exclusion zones more difficult than it thinks. The referendum on the Eighth removed the right to life of the unborn (the legal right – no referendum can remove their moral right); but it did not remove the right of the Irish people to assemble, speak out against evil, or to protest. These rights remain. And even if the government does enact laws contrary to these rights enforcing them will be difficult. Even in our degraded times I do not think the Irish people have the stomach to allow people peacefully praying outside chambers of death, among whom will be many who are elderly and frail, to be dragged off to jail by burly policemen.
5 God is with us.
This is the most powerful reason for hope of all. We may not know why the Father of us all permits this evil in our time. But we know from history that similar forms of evil arose and were defeated by Him. In the Old Testament when the Hebrews entered the Promised Land they found it and the lands around it filled with all kinds of evil. One of the most horrific was sacrifice of children to the demon Moloch. God prevailed and evil was driven out. During the time of the Roman Empire infanticide was commonplace. The early Church fought against this evil and, with God’s help, overcame it – in the process creating a society that prized new life so highly that the very idea of infanticide, abortion, and even contraception were considered abominations for well over a thousand years. In both cases the numbers opposing evil were small relative to those espousing the evil they fought against. But they remained faithful and persevered in the fight and ultimately were victorious. This is what we are called to do now. The forces of evil today may think the odds are stacked in their favour. But the reality is very different. What they call ‘progress’ is actually falling back into the ways of demon-worshippers and pagans. And those who follow in that way can never prevail; rather they are themselves doomed to destruction.
