Cal Thomas: The fall of Ireland’s pro-life culture

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 31st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from member-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Is there a stable basis for human rights? Or are we humans nothing more than material and energy shaped by pure chance in a random universe — with no author of life, no purpose for living, and no destination after we die? It appears to me that voters in Ireland answered the second question yes, and then voted accordingly.

EICHER: Cal Thomas now on what’s next for the Emerald Isle.

THOMAS: Of course, I’m thinking about Ireland’s nationwide vote to remove equal protection to unborn children. Voters last weekend tossed out a constitutional amendment that effectively banned abortion.

Several factors seemed to be at play here: I’d say this represents a generational change in moral values, but it’s also the result of scandals in Ireland’s once-dominant Catholic Church, which has squandered much of its moral authority. There might be a feeling of pressure from other European Union states that allow abortion, and the language of the constitutional amendment itself might’ve seemed harsh to many.

It all added up to what I predict will be an assault on the rights of the unborn.

Ireland’s pregnancy help centers assist women with unplanned pregnancies at no charge, but media coverage of the issue ignored those voices. Instead, Irish voters heard the same propaganda about abortion that we’ve heard for decades here in the United States.

Independent Irish Senator Ronán Mullen told the Irish Times:

Quoting now, “Ireland has lost something very beautiful … a lot of unborn children will lose their lives in future — that is what happens when abortion gets legalized. I would ask people to keep those children in their thoughts and prayers today, and their mothers, and those involved in their lives.” End quote.

Pro-lifers are going to have to increase their support of the country’s pregnancy centers, so that women can be offered help, adoption services, and other aid. They need the life-affirming message not to “play God,” but to deliver their babies even in difficult circumstances.

Over the years, I’ve supported Pregnancy Care Centers in the United States and have heard many stories of women who’ve chosen life. I never hear words of regret. But many others who have had abortions — some more than one — live with regret their entire lives.

Still to be determined is how Ireland’s legislature will write the new abortion law.

Of course, many Irish eyes are smiling over the outcome of the vote.

But other eyes are weeping: Weeping for the babies who will die and weeping for the women whose lives will be filled with regret.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Cal Thomas.

(AP Photo/Peter Morrison) In this photo taken on May 17, 2018, pro and anti-abortion poster’s on lampposts, in Dublin, Ireland. 

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