Family & Life Report January
20.01.2023
Pro-Life Public Meetings: Just before Christmas, Family & Life held information meetings to highlight the barbarity of late-term abortions and encourage volunteers to distribute our late-term abortion leaflet in their areas. Our most recent meetings were in Dun Laoghaire, Limerick and Roscommon. The attendees were very encouraged and determined to continue the fight for the unborn, particularly against the cruel late-term abortion practice.
Professor Patricia Casey spoke at the first of a new series of meetings at Wynns Hotel, Dublin to highlight the threat of Euthanasia. There will be a report in the April Update about the Government’s move to legalise the practice and the danger Ireland faces. Dr Casey is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Professor of Psychiatry with specific expertise in this area.
Can you help us organise an information meeting in your area? If so, contact Adrian, the director of campaigns at: adrian@familyandlife.org
Introduce the Personal Update to a Friend or Parish: If you enjoy reading the Personal Update and can think of someone who would enjoy receiving it, please ask them to contact us at: info@familyandlife.org with their name and contact number, and we will make sure they receive a free copy. If you are interested in distributing copies at your church (and with your Parish Priest’s permission), just call the Dublin office or email me at the address above.
Webinars: I recommend visiting the YouTube channel to view some of the recent live events. In particular watch our webinar with David Smyth of the Evangelical Alliance. He spoke about the increase of discrimination against Christians in Europe with a particular focus
on Ireland and the UK. David Smyth works with the Northern Ireland branch of the Evangelical Alliance, and knows many Christians who have been victims of discrimination. Also of interest is a two part interview we did with journalist Mary Kenny on her new book, The Way We Were: Catholic Ireland since 1922.
Washington DC Pro-Life Delegation: Family & Life is preparing to send another delegation to Washington DC this March to meet and learn from pro-life leaders there. Our delegation will include Irish politicians, students and pro-life graduates from our Leadership Academy.
We want to hear their account of how they succeeded in overturning Roe v Wade, and how they are dealing with the attacks of the government, media and pro-abortion groups over this monumental reversal of an evil law. We will tell them about the challenges we have in Ireland since the 2018 abortion referendum, and how we can work together in the defence of the Unborn.
LifeZine: Don’t forget to sign up for the very popular LifeZine, our email news bulletin. When you sign up for LifeZine, you will be kept up to date on life and family news at home and abroad on a regular basis. We will also update you on coming events such as webinars, public meetings, petitions and lobbying campaigns.
Social Media: We have had an incredible response since mid-November, when millions of people viewed our posts. In a two-week period in early December, three million people viewed our Facebook pages. This is incredible! 200,000 people reacted to one post alone, which was copied to the profiles of 31,000 people, thereby reaching a further audience of 1.3 million and receiving 90,000 “likes” with a total of 18,500 people posting comments.
Throughout November and December, we had a number of posts that went viral; the pro life celebrity, Joy Villa’s story of choosing life for her child was liked 43,000 times on our Protect Life page, and shared 7,000 times with 3,000 comments, many of whom had a similar experience. Even as recent as last Friday we had a pro-life post exceeding 30,000 likes and reaching an audience of 756,000 people.
These are incredible numbers and a good indication that the pro-life movement is growing, and that our arguments create debate and change of heart and mind. As we’ve mentioned before, each social media post is uniquely designed to show the reality and dangers of abortion. We regularly receive comments from young women who were contemplating abortion but changed their minds after viewing our message. Others have shared it with their friends and family who were once pro-abortion.
Other Media and Our Pro-life Videos: Just like Facebook, other social media platforms like Instagram are useful tools in spreading the pro-life message. They tend to cater to a younger audience.
Twitter has long suppressed the pro-life message and has favoured pro-abortion activism for over a decade. The recent change in ownership has presented us with a chance to give the unborn a voice on the platform and hopefully save babies’ lives.
Our pages can be found on:
- https://www.facebook.com/protectlifeire
- https://www.facebook.com/FamilyVitae/
- https://www.instagram.com/protectlifeire/
- https://twitter.com/ProtectLife2023
Here are a few of the comments that we recently received:
Back in 2001 my girlfriend had an abortion, and what makes it even worse, it was my idea. Living with it every day, every moment, is a hardship I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy—Tom
I had something similar to this beautiful child who has defied all the odds to live 27 years—Orla was told that her baby would die at birth.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I took 13 years away from my job to be at home with my kids. It was a financial sacrifice, but absolutely no regrets—Mary
As an adopting parent, I cannot express my constant gratitude to my child’s biological parents—Barb
Breaking the Consensus: Over the past year we have interviewed some great speakers with a vital message, and their interviews remain online doing good long after the event. Some of the most popular events include Ted McClusky, a Leading US Pro-Life activist, Peter D Williams of the Anscombe Bioethical Centre on the dangers of legalised euthanasia, Pro-Life activist, Vicky Wall of Every Life Counts on the challenges facing the pro-life movement in Ireland, Headmaster Richard Casey on setting up an independent Catholic Primary School in Limerick, and humanitarian, Alexandre Goodarzy who was kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Iraq. They can be viewed on our Facebook pages, or on our YouTube channel, Protect Life, at this address: www.youtube.com/@protectlife12
One recent worry is an extreme abortion bill sponsored by People Before Profit, which passed the first stage of voting in the Dáil. It removes all restrictions on abortion so that it can be obtained at any time for any reason. The Bill expands a diagnosis of “fatal foetal abnormality” from 28 days to a full year. We are currently working with our volunteers around the country to organise opposition with local TD’s.
Addendum: Just last week, the Master of the Rotunda Hospital confirmed what we predicted in 2018, yet was dismissed by the media and our opponents as a shock tactic: “95 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted.”