A woman who had an abortion told a Rally for Life event attended by about 1,000 people in Galway that women were never told of the side effects – the self-hatred, the anxiety, the suffering in silence.
Bernadette Goulding, founder of the Women Hurt website for women who regretted their abortions, told the event organised by LoveBoth for the Stand Up For Life campaign that abortion was not just a women’s issue.
“For every abortion, there’s a man and it affects them as well. They too suffer from depression, anxiety, self-harm, attempted suicide as well as broken marriages and relationships.
“I used to think the pro life people were my enemy but I now know that the pro choice – I rarely use that term, I call them pro abortion – only care for the woman whereas we care about the baby as well.”
Keynote speaker Claire Culwell, a blogger from Texas, shared her story of how she survived the abortion that ended the life of her twin brother.
When her birth mother discovered she was pregnant at 13 years of age, Claire Culwell’s grandmother took her for an abortion. A few weeks later, Claire’s mother discovered she was still pregnant, but the pregnancy had developed to a point where no doctor was prepared to carry out a further abortion. Claire was born shortly after that and was subsequently adopted.
Life-saving alternatives
She told the rally on Thursday night: “We need to work on putting life-saving alternatives to abortion in place so that women don’t feel that they have no choice but to have an abortion when they find themselves unexpectedly pregnant. Women, their partners and their babies deserve better than abortion.”
Later she told The Irish Times that a young man had approached her afterwards to thank her for helping him make up his mind to vote against repealing the Eighth Amendment.
Ms Culwell, who will address her fifth regional rally on Saturday in Cork’s Grand Parade at 2pm, said this week showed her the importance of people sharing personal stories.
Focus on goal
Katie Ascough, who hosted the event, urged the crowd to stay focused on the goal in hand. She said: “What each of us does in the next seven weeks will determine the kind of Ireland our children and grandchildren grow up in. It will determine whether Ireland continues to protect the right to life of unborn babies or abandons these protections in the false name of ‘choice’.”
The Galway event was also addressed by LoveBoth spokeswoman and lawyer Caroline Simons who urged people to work hard so that the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment is defeated.
“The Government’s proposal is more extreme than England’s abortion law where one in every five babies is aborted,” she said.
“If the Eighth Amendment was repealed, Ireland would go from being a country that protected and respected unborn babies to one of the most extreme and unjust abortion regimes anywhere in the world. This is not overstating the reality of what repeal means. It’s a stark, sad fact.
“Those in Government pushing repeal are asking us to accept a proposal that would allow unrestricted abortion for the first three months in pregnancy, a time when the baby’s heart is beating, the baby is growing fingernails, and is yawning and sucking his or her thumb in the womb. Repeal would mean handing the Government a blank cheque to change our abortion laws at any time in the future without ever having to consult the people again in a referendum.”
