If a mother’s life is at risk, our main concern is protecting her. When life-threatening medical conditions arise, it is imperative that the mother’s life is protected. Sometimes the medical treatment of a life-threatening physical illness may result in the baby’s life being lost. This is not abortion. However tragic, it is an unintended, but unavoidable, consequence of performing essential treatment needed to save the life of the mother. Ireland has long been considered one of the safest countries in the world in which to be pregnant. The 8th Amendment had a significant role to play in this. Every human life was treated with respect and compassion, without exception.

We understand that sometimes Irish women feel like they have no other option but to choose abortion. Now that it will soon be easily accessible, sadly more and more women are likely to opt for abortion. However, no amount of societal acceptance or promotion of abortion can make ending the life of her old child something that comes naturally to a woman. A study in the European Journal for Public Health found that following an abortion, a woman is six times more likely to commit suicide than a woman who continues her pregnancy to term¹. This study was carried out in countries that have legal abortion on demand. Our aim is to help women who are experiencing a crisis pregnancy, and show them that abortion can never do more good than it does harm, either to the a mother or her baby.

¹ Gissler et al., ‘Injury deaths, suicides and homicides associated with pregnancy, Finland 1987-2000’ in European Journal of Public Health, 2005 Oct; 15(5):459-63. See also: Gissler et al., ‘Suicides after pregnancy in Finland, 1987-1994, register linkage study,’ in British Medical Journal, 1996 December 7, 313(7070): 1431-4.