POSITIVE PATHWAYS - REMOVING OBSTACLES FOR WOMEN WHO CHOOSE LIFE

The Pro-Life Campaign has launched a new campaign to offer practical alternatives to abortion for women in Ireland experiencing an unplanned pregnancy, and who may feel in crisis.

According to Pro Life Campaign manager, Eilís Mulroy, “Our campaign is offering a support system so that no woman feels coerced into having an abortion, and this can often be the case when women make contact with State funded services.  It is in the interest of every woman thinking about abortion, and their unborn baby, that they are offered information about alternatives to abortion, as well as the extent of the comprehensive support available to them.

“The changes that the PLC campaign is calling for are reasonable, necessary and achievable, including:

• a comprehensive reform of the HSE MyOptions service to ensure it truly provides non-directive advice to women, including information on supports for parenting and adoption to ensure it does not continue acting as simply as an abortion referral service;

• a commitment that there should be balance on State committees and bodies tasked with overseeing and amending the abortion regime, at present these entities are composed of people who wish to see abortion expanded – the Pro Life campaign wants to ensure there is balance, and that criticisms of the impact of abortion can be heard at the highest decision-making levels;

• for the Government to commit to reducing the spiralling abortion rate by ensuring that counsellors with experience in helping women in unplanned pregnancies are not excluded – their expertise is valuable and just because they uphold an ethos which doesn’t support pointing women towards abortion should not disqualify them from continuing to help women in unplanned pregnancies.”

Ms Mulroy continued, “Our campaign is up and running and will raise awareness about the need for positive alternatives for women in unplanned pregnancy so as to bring about a reduction in Ireland’s massive abortion numbers.  The campaign will be supported by national billboard advertising (see above) to draw attention to the need for positive alternatives to abortion; a lobbying campaign targeting Oireachtas members; and, social media advertisements and video campaign to highlight the lack of resources for women seeking positive alternatives to abortion.

“The campaign objective is to build on our recent achievements in order to help create a more welcoming environment for mothers and unborn babies.  I invite anyone who wishes to financially contribute to our life-saving campaign to do so here”