Precious Life respond to "open letter" from Pro-Abortion Group
The so-called “Supporting Women Newry” group set up regular protests to harrass and intimidate pro-life women and men holding peaceful vigils outside an abortion centre in Newry.
In an "open letter to Precious Life" published by Newry.ie, the pro-abortion group demand that we stop our life-saving work outside centres where babies are killed by abortion.
Here is Precious Life's response:
Dear Members of ‘Supporting Women Newry’,
You claim your objection to Precious Life’s protests outside abortion centres is “not about abortion.” You state that “you do not and will not debate” with Precious Life the issue of so-called “termination of pregnancies.”
Therefore, we can only respond on the basis that you are accepting abortion kills babies and hurts women. You have no idea how abortion impacts the emotional and psychological well-being of women. We could arrange meetings for you with many women who are suffering after abortion, but as you “will not debate” we can only presume your refusal means you do not care about them enough to even listen to them.
Precious Life was formed to be a voice for the unborn child. We will always speak out where and whenever the life of a baby is in danger of abortion. We will always debate and highlight the issue, and not be side-lined by nonsensical, and indeed hypocritical arguments that basically say, “you have the right to protest - but stop protesting!”
It must first be stated that Precious Life have the right to protest without fear of intimidation and harassment from the “Supporting Women Newry" Group.
Our placards that state ‘Babies are killed in this building’ could only be ”grossly offensive” to those who don’t want people to know that fact, and would rather it was covered up and kept hidden.
If one baby is killed by abortion in any health and social care setting, it is one baby too many.
The fact that babies are being killed is grossly offensive to us, and to all right-thinking people of Newry. Babies do not deserve this. And what’s more they cannot change any policies or laws within the womb, so we must be their voice.
Also, the hundreds of thousands of people across Northern Ireland who pray regularly will be somewhat bemused (or even offended) by your assertion that praying is “highly objectionable and offensive behaviour.”
People in Northern Ireland are also well used to various protests of one kind or another.
You tell us to take our protest away and go to the places where the politicians gather. We already do hold many protests where politicians gather – especially the pro-abortion politicians from Sinn Fein, SDLP and Alliance.
But babies are not being killed where politicians gather. Therefore, first and foremost, we go to the places where the babies are killed.
Telling us to take our protests away is, at best contradictory, at worst, hypocritical. You object to Precious Life. You have the right to protest about it. And you show your objection by protesting on the road opposite us. You protest at the ‘place’ of your objection.
Likewise, we protest at the 'place' of our objection – the abortion centres where babies are killed.
In conclusion, we appeal to you to stop your weekly protests against Precious Life’s work to protect unborn babies. We appeal to you to help us support women in Newry who are struggling with an unexpected pregnancy. We appeal to you to please show compassion for those little human beings, those ‘little women’ living and growing in their mothers' wombs.
And please remember, every member of ‘Supporting Women Newry’ was also once an unborn baby in their mother’s womb. So please respect that the right to life needs to be unimpeded for all other unborn babies. Without the right to life, all other rights are meaningless!
If you are truly concerned about protecting the “most powerless” then please join our protests calling on the powerful in Government to leave alone the most powerless of all – a little baby in her mother's womb, a future citizen of Newry, maybe even a future staff member of Daisy Hill.
Precious Life