Why men should not be shut out of the abortion debate

Tomorrow (1.7.17), I’ll be at the Save the 8th Rally for Life in Dublin along with tens of thousands of others who support the right to life for the unborn child.

No doubt, at some point we will pass the few screeching pro-aborts in counter demonstration as they hiss, spit and shout obscenities in our direction while holding aloft their placards displaying a variety of bizarre and vulgar messages:

“My body – my choice” - is a fairly common placard and its message is oblivious to the reality that the developing foetus is in fact an individual with its own unique DNA.

“Keep your rosaries off my ovaries” - is an old favourite and is an attempt to portray pro-lifers as being motivated simply by religious belief while ignoring the facts that some of us are atheists and human life does not begin at ovulation.

“If abortion is murder then blowjobs r cannibalism” - now that is a new one, which really highlights the level of scientific ignorance in the ranks of the pro-choice brigade.

Just as human life does not begin at ovulation, neither does it begin at ejaculation; it actually begins at conception and this is not a belief of mine, it is a long established undeniable scientific fact. Unlike the spermatozoa depicted on the placard, the facts are hard to swallow for many pro-choice campaigners, so they either deny or blatantly ignore them.

They don’t like the fact that human life begins at conception, so they uses phrases like “a clump of cells” to deny the humanity of the unborn child.

They don’t like the fact that the term “fatal foetal abnormality” is not actually a real medical diagnosis, but they use it anyway to try and convince others that it is.

They completely ignore the fact that medical inquiries (HIQA and HSE) found that Savita Halappanavar died of sepsis that went undetected due to negligence and they continue to use her tragic death to promote their twisted agenda for abortion-on-demand in Ireland.

Yes indeed, the facts can be triggering for some pro-aborts; I have been spit on and screeched at on more than one occasion and I have encountered pro-choice campaigners that refused to engage in debate simply because I am a man; saying that I shouldn’t even have a vote in the referendum!

Despite the fact that I spent the first nine-months of my life in my mother’s womb I should be excluded from the debate because my father’s spermatozoon carried the Y chromosome? 

Of course this demented argument doesn’t apply to all men.

It doesn’t apply to celebrechauns like Liam Neeson or Cillian Murphy when they campaign for abortion. Nor does it apply to billionaires like George Soros and Warren Buffet when they lavishly fund abortion campaigns and pay for women to have abortions. It certainly doesn’t apply to men like Amnesty International’s Colm O’Gormon when they’re leading pro-abortion campaigns; their lack of a womb doesn’t seem to matter to the twits on Twitter who furiously tweet out #NoUterusNoOpinion.

It only applies to pro-life men; men like Dr. Anthony Levatino, a practicing obstetrician, gynaecologist and former abortionist who performed over 1,200 abortions before realising that he was, in fact, taking human life.

Dr. Levatino’s testimony to the so-called Citizen's Assembly clearly fell on deaf ears as it recommended that the Oireachtas should legislate for abortion without restriction in Ireland. 

An Oireachtas committee has now been established and a referendum will be held next year because the fact is, despite the catchy slogan, you cannot simply “Repeal the 8^th” like legislation. Our Constitution must be amended and it will be up to the people of Ireland, Irishmen and Irishwomen, to decide how much we actually value human life.

The value that Irish society has for human life is central to this debate, just as is our desire to ensure that women receive the support and compassion they need when they face an unexpected pregnancy. Valuing human life and looking for real support and care for women is something that everyone, regardless of gender, should support. 

Just as our Constitution seeks to protect the right to life of the unborn with the 8^th Amendment it also guarantee’s our right to vote “without distinction of sex”, so it is daft for pro-choicers to even raise this as an issue. Trying to exclude men from the debate is an attempt to distract from the facts - and as a former pro-choicer I know how important those facts are in the battle for hearts and minds.

The facts are gender neutral and as a man I will continue to distribute them with my fellow pro-lifers door-to-door and person-to-person, changing one mind at a time. As a father I will continue to raise my children to value all human life, and as a community activist I will continue to help vulnerable families as best I can and promote better alternatives to women that are considering an abortion or suffering from Post-Abortion Syndrome.

When I pass those screeching harpies tomorrow, I will be holding my head high.