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Pro-life campaigners urge support for bishops’ Day for Life
Belfast, 29 September 2003--The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, leading pro-life campaigners in Northern Ireland, has welcomed the decision of the Roman Catholic bishops of Ireland to declare Sunday 12 October a Day for Life.
Mrs Betty Gibson, chairwoman of SPUC Northern Ireland, is urging the
society's Catholic members and all pro-life Catholics in Ireland to
support the bishops' initiative.
Mrs Gibson said: "It is essential for all Catholics to do what they
can to make the bishops' Day for Life a success.
"The fundamental right to life from the first moment of conception is
under threat in both parts of Ireland. In Northern Ireland there are
the Family Planning Association's attempts to undermine the legal
protection for our unborn children, as well as the British
government's threat to introduce euthanasia by the back door in its
Mental Incapacity Bill.
"In the Irish Republic there is increasing concern over the
government's policies on the promotion of the abortion-causing
morning-after pill as a contraceptive, the destructive use of human
embryos and its support for abortion overseas in direct defiance of
the pro-life clauses in the constitution.
"We are urging Catholics across Ireland to ask their priests to offer
Mass for all expectant mothers especially those facing a crisis
pregnancy, and for the safe delivery of their children. We are also
asking them to remember in their prayers the many thousands of Irish
women every year who are hurt by legal abortion in Britain.
"We are grateful for the Irish Bishops' defence of the right to life
from the moment of conception despite the growing influence in Ireland
of what Pope John Paul II has called the culture of death."
The Irish bishops are expected to issue a pastoral letter on 12 October, the Day for Life. This will be a reflection on the pope's writings and will commemorate the 25th anniversary of his election.
