{"id":13358,"date":"2012-03-17T21:31:05","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T01:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.liveactionnews.org\/?p=13358"},"modified":"2013-04-02T20:32:26","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T00:32:26","slug":"saoise-the-20-year-abortion-freedom-of-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/saoise-the-20-year-abortion-freedom-of-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Saoirse: the 20-year abortion freedom of Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Saoirse (pronounced \u2018sear-sha\u2019) is an Irish name, which means \u201cfreedom.\u201d I don\u2019t know many words in Irish, but this is one I learned and one that I love. The word \u201cfreedom&#8221; means so much to us as Americans, and it is also a very meaningful word to the Irish people.<\/p>\n<p>Today is St. Patrick\u2019s Day, which brought to mind this word because much of Ireland\u2019s history revolves around the battle for freedom. I\u2019m not here to give you a history of Ireland\u2019s battle for freedom (look in a history book if you want the history), but I think it\u2019s important to speak about a specific freedom the Irish have \u2013 which is freedom from abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland has within its constitution a protection for the unborn child, which states:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The state acknowledges <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the right to life of the unborn<\/span> and, with <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">due regard to the equal right to life of the mother<\/span>, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right. (Article 40.3.3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Isn\u2019t that amazing? The mother and child are treated as equals. Two persons with equal rights\u2026beautiful! But \u2013 just because there is a protection for the unborn, that doesn\u2019t mean that there isn\u2019t pressure to legalize abortion.<\/p>\n<p>In 1992, the \u201cX case\u201d (often referred to as Ireland\u2019s <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>) used a rape victim\u2019s case to challenge this protection of the unborn and tried to legalize abortion. Thankfully this case did not legalize abortion, but it did open the discussion and continues to fuel the abortion debate to this day. For the past 20 years, the Irish people have continued the battle to keep their country abortion-free, but this fight continues to rage on and is getting more intense by the day.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, for the first time in history, the United Nations reviewed Ireland\u2019s human rights records and allowed the 192 U.N. member-states to offer recommendations on how Ireland could improve. During this review, six different countries attacked Ireland&#8217;s pro-life laws and called on Ireland to legalize abortion. Interestingly, abortion is the greatest human rights abuse in the world and is not legal in Ireland, yet these countries called for abortion to \u201ccorrect\u201d human rights violations. After tremendous pressure from the people, the Irish government rejected these motions by various member-states, thankfully.<\/p>\n<p>Just this past month, however, the pressure for abortion came on again and came on stronger than ever. A few weeks ago marked the 20<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the infamous \u201cX case.\u201d Pro-life groups like Youth Defence were celebrating 20 years of Ireland&#8217;s abortion ban and over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youthdefence.ie\/projects\/100000-babies-saved\/\">100,000 babies saved<\/a> because of it\u2026amazing, right? One hundred thousand babies! But abortion advocates used this anniversary to fuel the most intense battle cry for abortion to date, demanding that the Irish government legislate on the \u201cX case\u201d and legalize abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Every day for nearly the past month, the issue of abortion has flooded the Irish papers, the Irish radio, and television shows across the nation. Pro-abortionists are whining about women\u2019s rights and claiming that Ireland needs to \u201cget with the times.\u201d The media is obsessed with the pro-abortion movement and continues to promote that movement&#8217;s anti-life agenda. But \u2013 the pro-lifers are standing strong for life and working harder than ever to run educational campaigns, write articles and reports that engage the public, and use social media to expose the truth about abortion and the abortion industry.<\/p>\n<p>Saoirse \u2013 the Irish have fought to keep their great nation abortion-free and continue to fight for freedom to this day. Freedom is a nation untouched by the horrors of abortion. Freedom is being in a country that has more pregnant women and children walking around than any place you\u2019ve ever experienced. Freedom is a place where the unborn child and its mother are treated as equals, treated as persons. Ireland is a nation that is truly free \u2013 because every life is protected and respected.<\/p>\n<p>Planned Parenthood\u2019s lawyer Julie Kay once described Ireland as the \u201cjewel in the crown of the pro-life movement.\u201d This is true. Although Ireland is small, it is a nation that has become one of the pro-life movement\u2019s most precious jewels. We must stand with Ireland and make sure that this \u201cjewel\u201d is guarded and that life is protected. And then we will add more jewels to this crown and polish them to make them shine brighter than ever before. We will win this battle; Ireland continues to give us hope every day in this battle for life.<\/p>\n<p>For many years, Ireland has fought to keep Ireland abortion-free, and I am happy to say that today will be another day without abortion in Ireland. Happy St. Patrick\u2019s Day! And remember when you are out celebrating to raise a glass in honor of the 100,000 lives that have been saved because of Ireland\u2019s ban on abortion, and remember that there is hope for our great nation \u2013 that one day, America will be ABORTION-FREE!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saoirse (pronounced \u2018sear-sha\u2019) is an Irish name, which means \u201cfreedom.\u201d I don\u2019t know many words in Irish, but this is one I learned and one that I love. The word \u201cfreedom&#8221; means so much to us as Americans, and it is also a very meaningful word to the Irish people. Today is St. Patrick\u2019s Day, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":13362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saoirse: the 20-year abortion freedom of Ireland - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/saoise-the-20-year-abortion-freedom-of-ireland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saoirse: the 20-year abortion freedom of Ireland - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Saoirse (pronounced \u2018sear-sha\u2019) is an Irish name, which means \u201cfreedom.\u201d I don\u2019t know many words in Irish, but this is one I learned and one that I love. 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