Between 3,000 to 4,000 people gathered at Merrion Square this afternoon to show their opposition to a repeal of the eighth amendment, with less than two weeks to go before the vote on May 25th.
Several speakers took to the stage during the course of the rally, introduced in turn by Katie Ascough, who was impeached as University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU) President last year.
“There are groups of people all across Ireland who are devoting their time and giving up their evenings to ensure we keep our eighth amendment”, she told the crowd.
“Give everything you have over these next 13 days.”
Speakers targeted the repeal side, accusing pro-choice campaigners of dishonesty and claiming that the repeal of the eighth amendment would introduce “abortion on demand”. Other speakers called Ireland one of the safest places in the world to be pregnant, while there was a strong sense of distrust towards any government implementing abortion legislation post-repeal.
“I have heard a litany of falsehoods”, Dr Andrew O’Regan, from the Medical Alliance for the Eighth, told the crowd. “This debate is not about healthcare.”
Bernadette Goulding, who runs a website for women who regret their abortions, took aim at the Labour Party’s posters, which call for “compassion in a crisis”. Repeal activists, she said, “don’t know the meaning of the word shame”.
“I feel compassion for the women behind the repeal movement because they have been fed lies”, she said. Goulding also took issue with one of the main planks of the repeal campaign – sympathy for women who are forced to travel to the UK for an abortion. Discussing her own abortion, she said: “All my child’s life experiences were taken away because of a choice. My choice. Freedom of choice is the buzzword today. But it’s not a choice. It’s a prison.”
A young mother, Mary Kenny, also addressed the crowd. Discussing her own crisis pregnancy, she said: “It’s ironic that some of the people who are campaigning for repeal are there because of the eighth amendment.”
“Do you ever sit back and think about how sad this debate really is? We’re debating the intentional killing of the smallest people in our society.”
In the crowd today were people of all ages and from across the country. Some people held up quotes from psalms or religious iconography, while at the front of the rally young people crowded in front of cameras and waved placards.
With only days left until the referendum on the eighth amendment, both sides are pushing for their supporters to hit doorsteps and have conversations about abortion.
