American dollars funding Irish pro-life campaign as the 'last bastion of abortion-free Europe'

American pro-life spokesperson says Youth Defence ‘needs the publicity’

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A woman holds a picture of Savita Halappanava during a candle lit vigil outside Belfast City Hall, Northern Ireland

Photo by AP

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Explaining Youth Defence’s background, Nagle writes: “In 1992 Youth Defence's immediate goal was to campaign to ensure that the case of a 14-year-old suicidal rape victim who was not allowed to have an abortion abroad, which brought thousands onto the street in protest, would not lead to any liberalisation of abortion legislation.”

Now over twenty years old, Youth Defence is known for their “shocking, enlarged poster images of aborted fetuses that they regularly display on Dublin's main thoroughfare and at stalls and demonstrations around the country,” writes Nagle.

Read more: Catholic Church calls on Irish government to hold abortion referendum

To American pro-life campaigners, Youth Defence is a pinnacle of hope for retaining some pro-life nations in Europe, thus explaining why funding is being sent. (Malta stands alone with Ireland as the only other European country that does not permit abortion.)

While legislation may still be pending and the discussions surrounding abortion are still evolving in Ireland, Nagle writes that “As a younger, bolder pro-choice generation seems to be emerging in Ireland and demanding more radical measures, the issue will inevitably have to come to a referendum to change the constitution and the American pro-life lobby may fear the last bastion of abortion-free Europe will be lost forever.”

“But if this generation of pro-choice activists is still counting small change by then, what Youth Defence and their American sponsors are preparing for won't be much of a fight.”

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