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Home Page > News > Many Irish angered by Youth Defence’s anti-abortion ad campaign in Dublin

Many Irish angered by Youth Defence’s anti-abortion ad campaign in Dublin

Some take to vandalizing and tearing down billboards

KERRY O’SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, June 22, 2012, 8:36 AM

Updated Friday, June 22, 2012, 8:36 AM

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One of the ads from a new anti-abortion campaign by the Youth Defence organization in Ireland

Photo by Broadsheet.ie

A new ad campaign by the Youth Defence organization, an anti-abortion group in Ireland, urging mothers not to opt for abortion has stirred up controversy not only within Dublin city, but around the country.

A new series of print ads that have been hung around Dublin city proclaim “Abortion tears her life apart. There is always another option,” with ‘always’ underlined for emphasis. On the ads is either a picture of a seemingly distraught woman or a picture of a fetus.

Broadsheet reported on Wednesday from one reader who was particularly disgruntled. Said the reader: “By telling women that there is “always” (emphasised) a better option, and that abortion “tears” a woman’s life apart, this advertisement encourages and condones “dangerous behaviour or unsafe practices” as it discourages women from having an abortion in ANY circumstances, even when their lives are medically threatened as a result of the pregnancy.”

Many of those who were angered by the new ad campaign took to social media to air their frustrations. Youth Defence’s Facebook page saw a flurry of activity following the reveal of the new ads around Dublin - some in favor, some not.

Thursday morning it was revealed that some have gone further than just speaking out against the ad campaign. Broadsheet reported that some have taken to ripping the ads down during the night.

On Thursday, Broadsheet posted a reader-submitted comment that said “On the shortest night of 2012 some people got together for some direct action against the appalling Youth Defence posters that have been plastered all over Dublin city center.” Accompanied with the post was a video of the ad being splattered with paint and ripped down.

Some are now calling for the ads to be removed altogether as they are “disingenuous” and “misleading,” and hold potential for widespread “offense.”

In one opinionated blog post Beaut.ie, a writer named Kitty posted “These posters and the people behind them are labouring under the delusion that they’re helping and protecting women, when really all they’re doing is trying to bully and shame them, us, into falling into step with their own beliefs.”

While many are angered by the new ad campaign, there are those who support it as well. Youth Defence’s Facebook page features comments and ‘likes’ in praise of the new billboards.

The HuffingtonPost UK reports that Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute, who are co-sponsoring the nationwide campaign with Youth Defence, said the posters were inspired by a woman who had had an abortion.

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KatieMurphy | Jun 25, 2012, 02:28 PM EDT

RE abortion and abortion rights. I bet the church would have a different angle on abortion, if the priests and hierarchy had to go through childbirth I'm not talking so much about the pain and struggle as the church's continuing multiple assaults on women -eg birth control Why - because in the church, women arent 2nd class, they are 3rd class citizens. Its all about control and is so similar to how the MUslims treat their women - baby factories and kitchen slaves. And believe it or not, but I saw something wome months ago that in Saudi land women will be able to vote in local elections starting in 2015. While I bet if it seemed like a possibility, the church would be trying to do with women what it tries to with gay people - taking away their rights that they had to fight so strongly for, even simple civil unions. I wonder the churches reaction in the past over womens suffrage?

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eiriamach | Jun 24, 2012, 06:45 PM EDT

jacersagain, when you've used the coercive power of law to rip that woman's free will from her-- freedom of will, without which she is less than human--have you not torn her soul apart? And have you not established your own tyranny over her? How will you live with your guilt, knowing that you have treated a fellow human being the way we behave toward inanimate objects? How do you look in a mirror when you know that the face of a tyrant who has stripped a human soul of its most priceless possession-- free will--looks back at you? IF you manage to live with such arrogance, you do so only by blunting your conscience to the point that you will tolerate ever worse abuses of women. Fairy tales about souls "uniquely created by this God at the moment of our conception" cannot stand up to the truth that more than half the human eggs fertilized after sex never implant in wombs, and that nature aborts many that do implant (miscarriage), and that some of the defective fertilized ova that do not spontaneously abort are doomed to develop into hopelessly impaired infants whose fate is to lie in blindness and pain, screaming in a hospital crib until they die of starvation. How do such decisions--yes, remember, YOU have outlawed the woman's decision to abort by YOUR DECISION to coerce her to give birth--stack up to the fifth commandment, the one that tells us to prevent human suffering, not to cause it? How would you tell the 9-year old Brazilian girl pregnant by rape that she must endure a horrific death because nature has not readied her body to give birth, only to be raped and become pregnant? Let's hear how you'd deal with the consequences of your tyranny!

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WoundedKnee | Jun 24, 2012, 05:49 PM EDT

Scivner; Looks like your last line was censored! But I get it--it was a good one, and very apt! But before we start condemning Irish anti-life people, we should not forget that here in the US there are places where an abortion can be carried out at eight or nine months. Roe V Wade permits it.

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Scrivner | Jun 24, 2012, 05:38 PM EDT

Cieradexy, you say,"There is more stigma attached to giving your baby up for adoption than there is having an abortion up to 12 weeks when no one knows your pregnant anyway"...this is the sign of a very sick society. Why stop at 12 weeks? How about 16 years post partum, that's when you really get fed up and would appreciate calling the health ministry to come and complete the "procedure." I regularly pray for my birth mom who gave me up for adoption when I was still an infant rather than pay a medical person tear my body apart with surgical instruments, to be flushed down a drain. I am a bastard, by accident of birth, but you, my dear ciaaradexy, are a self-made person.

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ciaradexy | Jun 24, 2012, 04:52 PM EDT

Jacers, YOU might believe in all that 'soul' stuff but many dont. I also know several women who have had abortions. None of them regret it. They regret getting pregnant, one was pregnant via being raped and she blamed herself for the rape. Women own their wombs and should never be forced into giving life support to something they dont want. You wouldnt be forced to give your kidney to someone you didnt want to have it even if it meant they'd die so why should a woman be forced to carry a pregnancy she doesnt want?

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Portia777 | Jun 24, 2012, 10:43 AM EDT

still in the dark ages with patriarchs trying to control women and their wombs. In sacred texts women are mere breeders with no souls.

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Gearoid4 | Jun 24, 2012, 10:35 AM EDT

It seems that the usual liberal suspects are raising a hue and cry about an advertisement that is both truthful and hard-hitting and is something that they would rather avert their eyes to. The appalling effects of abortions cannot be stated too often as it is covered up by euphemistic language by the apologists for this abomination. Too often words are used to hide the grisly destruction of nascent life in the womb and it's continuous psychological effects on women who go through with it.

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Portia777 | Jun 24, 2012, 10:35 AM EDT

jacersagain | That soul, like mine and yours, belongs to God and will return to God upon our deaths." Really. And who exactly are we but sparks of the God/Goddess creator. Our souls belong to us alone. If you believe souls belong to some god, then you have played right into the Roman church scam and given them your soul- for a price of course- they can then use your soul food to feed off because it has none.

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Gearoid4 | Jun 24, 2012, 10:34 AM EDT

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jacersagain | Jun 24, 2012, 12:15 AM EDT

Oops! I forgot to add that some human being, a saintly woman with soul, blessed with conversation with God, revealed to us mortal beings that every soul, of believers and of none, always gets to see the Glory of the Entity that is called God on the so-called Judgement Day (that probably means the day of our deaths). According to her, one’s eternal soul, like mine and yours, of believers and of non-believers, without the permission of our dead human bodies forever still in some grave, will always be called home to our soul-Creator and that it gets to see the glory of God that Moses and Abraham nearly saw and but only heard, whether you believe or not, since our souls were uniquely created by this God at the moment of our conception. It’s when your soul (not you in the mirror, with your smiling face, confident in your fake ability before God and best clothes on) sees the Glory of God that, if you are sinful in life (breaking the First Commandment of the Christ), or reject or disparage a belief in God, the Christ's daddy, without asking for God’s forgiveness for the wrongs and failures that all we’ve done, that your soul, and your soul alone, shirks away forever in its own shame from the Glory of God and lives a soulful eternity without seeing that beautiful Glory ever again. That’s really what Hell is, so she said. I can imagine the painful screams of distress of never ever seeing the Glory of God ever again. Can you? Take care of your soul. It is, after all, your God-given gift and yours alone to be recalled to the presence of God, your Creator.

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jacersagain | Jun 23, 2012, 09:36 PM EDT

Not many people realise that the very reason for the Catholic Church’s stance against abortion is because it holds that when a baby is conceived, a spiritual soul is also being created by God. That soul, like mine and yours, belongs to God and will return to God upon our deaths. Deliberate destruction of a foetus also deliberately destroys the soul created by God at the moment of conception. Who are we to kill off a soul created by God within human beings? Not one of us alive wants to be the victim of a murder, yet some people think it is ok to murder an innocent human creation and destroy its God-given soul. I know of women who were raped but continued their pregnancy to fruition before giving the baby up for adoption. They tell me they sleep more soundly knowing the baby is loved and being reared as a true full human being. I also know some women who did go for abortion; they have a hollow look in their eyes whenever abortion is mentioned. I never ask them more because of that desert experience with the Swedish lady. There are many stories of people alive today giving love and care to their own children who are glad that their mothers didn’t abort them though they were once tempted to.

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jacersagain | Jun 23, 2012, 09:28 PM EDT

While I don’t agree with Youth Defence’s methods, I can see their point. Let me tell you a little story. I was on a night-time camp-out in the deserts of Saudi Arabia with an international bunch of people during the time of the Irish Referendum campaign re abortion in the 1980’s. A mature Swedish woman, 42 yrs old, was in our company around the camp-fire. We were quietly, as one does around a flickering camp-fire, debating the referendum which hadn’t taken place yet, with a lot ‘for’ and ‘against’ discussion, and she was listening in. Eventually she wailingly spoke up and said “Oh, please! You Irish people, please tell your people back home NOT to vote to allow abortion!” With her unusual Swedish accent, we perked up. “I had two abortions” she said. “The first I didn’t care a bit about it. As soon as I knew I was pregnant, I had it done. It was just a procedure, like having a boil on your neck removed. But the second one was late in being done and when they pulled the baby out I heard it cry once and then I heard its last moan of breath. I knew then that I had killed it.” With that she broke into uncontrollable tears, many of us vainly trying to comfort her in her crying distress. I used to think that women had a right to choose even if I disagreed with abortion, which I always did and still do. Now I would encourage every woman never to have an abortion or spend the rest of their lives with the horror of that Swedish woman’s life enduring experience. Even if the cause of the pregnancy was rape. Sorry, but I have to affirm that and I’ll tell you why in my next post.

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sirpeter | Jun 23, 2012, 07:33 PM EDT

Cheers Redbranch.Nice of you to respond so positively to just a personnel opinion.

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ciaradexy | Jun 23, 2012, 06:16 PM EDT

Its women who have had abortions who are also taking offense to these posters. The phrase 'Abortion tears her life apart' simply isnt true or women wouldnt have abortions.

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RedBranch | Jun 23, 2012, 05:43 PM EDT

Thanks for that sirpeter. You have set the bar for compassionate punishment.

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