When it comes to defending unborn babies, Precious Life not only “talks the talk”, we also “walk the walk”. That’s why we organised the Prayer Vigil and Demonstration against the FPA abortion conference in Co. Down on Friday 8th October. Our pro-life event was an outstanding success, with hundreds of people from across Ireland gathering in Newcastle to be a voice for our unborn children.

It was absolutely outrageous that this abortion conference was held in Northern Ireland. Abortion is illegal here and our unborn children are protected under the Offences Against The Person Act and Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland). The 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland, so the two offences of ‘Illegal Abortion’ and ‘Child Destruction’ are still in existence and are serious criminal offences.

In a statement to the media, the Chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Health Committee Jim Wells (DUP) said he suspected that the organisers of the conference "were using it as a vehicle to bring abortion on demand into Northern Ireland".

The conference brochure claimed it was to examine the most up-to-date abortion practise, and that the main objective was for participants to learn about so-called advances in abortion techniques, best practise in abortion, post-abortion care, and training of clinicians providing abortion.

But in fact this conference was about training doctors in Ireland on how to murder babies in both early and late stages of pregnancy. They even had the hypocrisy to discuss ‘post-abortion care’ when abortion providers do not acknowledge the harmful after-effects of abortion such as depression, breast cancer, and even death.

Precious Life contacted the PSNI asking them to investigate the legality of this conference. We sought legal advice from the Association of Catholic Lawyers of Ireland and were advised that this was a criminal conference. The organisers and speakers at this conference were inciting Health Professionals in Northern Ireland to commit the crimes of illegal abortion and child destruction. The police have now confirmed to the media they are probing the legality of the conference stating "...should an illegal activity be identified the appropriate action will be taken."

On the evening before this pro-death conference, Precious Life members and supporters gathered outside the hotel for a very holy beautiful and holy Candle-Light Prayer Vigil, while the conference organisers cold-heartedly held a drinks reception and buffet before they discussed killing unborn babies.

That same evening, the Catholic Bishops of Ireland released a statement to the media saying, "...We appeal to all those who cherish the inherent dignity of human life in all its stages to join us in expressing opposition to this event ...We call on public representatives to express their opposition to this conference and to promote and defend a legislative environment which respects the inherent dignity of life in all it stages ...We call on Catholics and other Christians to renew their efforts to build a culture of life and to pray in particular for a renewed appreciation of the preciousness and inherent dignity of the life of the child in the womb."

Our main Prayer Vigil and Demonstration began at 8.30am on the Friday morning. Hundreds of People from all across the island of Ireland – north, south, east and west - came together to express their opposition to this event.

For the seven hour duration of the event, we stood in defiance of the enemies of the little ones. We lined the pavements around the front of the hotel holding pro-life signs and banners. We sang hymns and prayed that Ireland would always be protected from the scourge of abortion. We also prayed for the conversion of those in the conference, that God would open their eyes and their hearts to the humanity of the unborn child and to the evil of abortion.

Director of Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth carried out numerous interviews with media throughout the day.

She said, “In every abortion an innocent baby is killed. Protecting unborn children from abortion is the greatest human rights battle of our day, and those who support abortion must face the fact that it dismembers unborn babies, and stops their beating hearts. This is not pro-life rhetoric. It is established scientific fact."

She added, "Women deserve better than abortion. My vision is to ensure that any woman in a crisis pregnancy gets all the help and support she needs to keep her baby. We must eliminate the crisis, not eliminate the baby."

She also stated that opposition to abortion unites the communities and political parties in Northern Ireland. In 2008, the leaders of our four main political parties, and the leaders of our four main churches, sent letters to Westminster opposing abortion. The Assembly has also twice passed motions opposing the introduction of abortion to Northern Ireland.

While the FPA claimed they had support from politicians, members of the DUP and SDLP - who were attending a political conference in the same hotel - came out to our demonstration to show us their support.

The Belfast Telegraph reported on our demonstration, stating that we were "armed with placards and images of abortion." Precious Life member Alicea Brennan's response was ..."yes, we were armed to the back teeth -with our Spiritual Weapons - three Holy Priests, Crucifixes, Holy Water, Blessed Salt, God's Word, the Holy Rosary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St Michael and all of the Heavenly Hosts. We just had to stand firm, God did the rest!"

Our Vigil and Demonstration showed these abortionists that any attempt to legalise abortion in Ireland will not go unchallenged and will be met with the stiffest opposition. Each person at our demonstration was there to state - ‘Abortion? - Not In My Name’. Together we sent out a clear message that the people of Ireland - north and south - will never accept the killing of our unborn children.



See more pictures here: Prayer Vigil and Demonstration Photos



See newspaper coverage here:

Abortion seminar provokes anger


PSNI probe legality of abortion


Bishops deplore abortion conference


Pro-lifers to protest at abortion conference


Abortion law changes urged as conference defies protests


Catholic church fiercely opposed to down abortion congress

[BACK TO NEWS HEADLINES]