Abortion rates are "spiralling" in Ireland, according to the organisers of a "March For Life" which took place in Salthill on Saturday.
The organisers of the regional march, the Pro Life Campaign, said the purpose of Saturday’s event was to "raise awareness of Ireland’s spiralling abortion rate since the introduction of legal abortion in Ireland", while urging the Government to take "serious steps" towards implementing measures to reduce the number of abortions.
Among the speakers was Galway East TD Seán Canney who believed the public was "completely in the dark" when it came to “appalling tragedies happening under the law, like babies surviving late term abortions and being left to die unaided without receiving any medical care or assistance", while campaigner Corrine Claffey said more than 20,000 unborn babies had lost their lives to abortion in the first three years of the new law taking effect.
“Women and their unborn babies deserve better than a system where all the focus is on abortion and where women facing an unplanned pregnancy are not even offered information about positive alternatives to abortion.”
Another campaigner and former teenage mother Jessica Tear said she was "horrified" situations like her own were used "to push and justify abortion".
“It makes me very sad to think there are women who find themselves in situations similar to mine end up having abortion all because the state-run My Options service didn’t meet their needs or tell them about the supports and options other than abortion that are available. Women and their unborn babies deserve better. There needs to be a total overhaul of how state funded counselling in the area of unplanned pregnancy operates.”
The Pro Life Campaign believes the march sends a message to the Government that it must start "to respect and listen to Pro-Life perspectives" during the three-year review of the abortion law which is currently underway".
