Irish Voters Take Huge Pro-Life Stand: "Gut" Pro-Abortion Government

Lianne Laurence : Mar 2, 2016
LifeSiteNews.com

"I think a lot of abortion campaigners, they're so hand-in-glove with the media that they create this bubble for themselves. They actually believe that most people, like them, support abortion, all the way through to birth, for any reason whatsoever, and that most people see it as a major cause of concern and want all of the pro-life laws to be overturned." -Ui Bhriain

(Dublin, Ireland)—Irish voters made their pro-life views clear when they "eviscerated" the pro-abortion Irish Labour Party in the February 26 general election, says Niamh Ui Bhriain of Ireland's national pro-life lobby group, The Life Institute. (Photo courtesy of the Life Institute/via LifeSiteNews)

The collapse of Labour—which fell from 33 to six seats—also means the collapse of the Labour and Fine Gael coalition that has governed Ireland for the last five years.

Fine Gael felt the pro-life backlash as well, with the party falling from 73 to 49 seats, fatally weakening its ability to form government.

The party vowed in 2011 not to bring in abortion legislation, but passed the 'Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill' law in 2013, which permits abortion when the life of the mother is in danger, including when the mother threatens suicide.

"Fine Gael broke their promise, so there was a huge amount of anger out there amongst people," Ui Bhriain told LifeSiteNews. "Their vote was very badly hit in this election as well."

As for Labour, it made a referendum to repeal the Irish constitution's 1983 eighth amendment—which guarantees legal protection for the child in the womb—its major plank during the election campaign, she said.

"They made a very specific and very clear call to the electorate, and very much backed by the media, that if you didn't vote Labour you wouldn't get a chance to repeal the eighth amendment," explained Ui Bhriain.

"The electorate gave its answer to that call, and it eviscerated the Labour Party."

According to Ui Bhriain, a mother of four daughters who has been with The Life Institute for about twelve years, "certainly we can say that Labour lost some votes because their call for abortion was very extreme."  The party "wanted abortion on demand legalized, which is based on the British model of abortion."

"We can also say with absolute certainty there is no public support amongst the people for the repeal of the eighth amendment," she told LifeSiteNews, and this despite "a very sustained, concerted, relentless media push" for such a referendum.

The result was "devastating to abortion campaigners here" who have "been gnashing their teeth and pulling their hair on Twitter since last Saturday, when it became very clear that this was a wipe-out for Labour."

"I think a lot of abortion campaigners, they're so hand-in-glove with the media that they create this bubble for themselves," observed Ui Bhriain. "They actually believe that most people, like them, support abortion, all the way through to birth, for any reason whatsoever, and that most people see it as a major cause of concern and want all of the pro-life laws to be overturned."

"And what the election showed is that they are grossly, grossly out of step with what most Irish people believe, so that's very significant."

But that appears to be the only definitive result of the Irish vote, which is based on a system of proportional representation.

With centrist parties Fine Gael winning 49 seats and Fianna Fáil 44 at last count, it remains unclear just what…

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