Ireland’s bishops have spoken out in regret of the 50,000 abortions that have taken place since it was legalised in the country in 2019, noting that it is five times the number of deaths from Covid-19. Source: The Tablet.
Contrasting the strenuous efforts made to save lives in Ireland during the pandemic, they said it was “quite tragic” that at the same time that the focus was on saving lives, protecting the vulnerable and making sure that people were not forgotten, “our society also began the wholesale destruction of human life through abortion”.
In a statement following the Bishops’ Summer General Meeting in Maynooth, the Irish hierarchy highlighted that while Covid cost almost 10,000 lives in Ireland, there have been more than 50,000 abortions since 2019, equivalent to nearly 2000 classrooms of children.
Following the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in 2018, abortion became legal in Ireland in January 2019. In 2024, 10,852 abortions were officially carried out.
According to the bishops, questions need to be asked as to why this figure has not provoked anything like the crisis response in the form of solidarity or outreach that was seen in response to the Covid pandemic.
“Over 90 per cent of abortions in Ireland take place in the first 12 weeks but, in a society that is otherwise collapsing under the weight of research statistics, there is no attempt to even find out why,” they said.
“Neither the State, nor the mainstream media, seem to have any interest in exploring what leads women to choose abortion or what happens to them afterwards,” they said.
They regretted that some politicians seem “determined at all costs” to widen the scope of the present law.
Politicians are this week due to vote on Sinn Féin’s bill to abolish the three-day reflection period before an abortion, which Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said, “completely ignores the incredible life-saving impact this safeguard has had”.
She noted that Health Service Executive data shows that between 2019 and 2024, 10,426 women who attended an abortion appointment did not return after the three-day wait, which she added was “solid evidence of the life-saving impact of this provision”.
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Irish bishops regret large numbers of abortions (By Sarah Mac Donald, The Tablet)
