Pro Life Campaign


Pro Life Campaign is an Irish anti-abortion advocacy organisation. Its primary spokesperson is Cora Sherlock. It is a non-denominational organisation which promotes anti-abortion views and defends human life at all stages from conception to natural death, and opposes abortion in all circumstances.
The Pro Life Campaign was established in 1992. Its office is located in Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin.

Foundation

After the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was ratified in September 1983, a number of those involved in that campaign, including some lawyers, decided to initiate legal proceedings through SPUC. The targets were two pregnancy advisory agencies in Dublin. The cases started in 1985, won at the Supreme Court of Ireland and the Court of Justice of the European Union. That same year, the X case arose, and abortion in potentially wide circumstances was endorsed by the Irish Supreme Court.
The group that had planned the SPUC cases at once advised the setting up of the Pro Life Campaign. Within a week of the court judgement, it had set up an office in North Great George's Street and held its first press conference on 10 March. The chairman, and later honorary president, was Des Hanafin, who had played a central role in the 1983 campaign.
Pro Life Campaign is a trading name of VIE Ltd, a private limited company incorporated in Ireland in June 1993. Its founding directors were Joe McCarroll, Owen Doyle, Mary Barrett, John O'Reilly, Barry Kiely, Des Hanafin, Marie Vernon, Catherine Bannon, Jerry Collins, Michael Lucey and Desmond McDoland.

1992 Abortion Referendums

In 1992, in the wake of the X Case, there were three abortion referendums in Ireland.
The government had proposed the 12th Amendment Bill as an attempt to rule out the risk of suicide as a ground for an abortion. It would have added the following clause to Article 40.3.3º:
The Pro Life Campaign rejected this wording as too broad, and proposed the following alternative wording:
The PLC also called for a No vote on the 14th Amendment which allowed for the provision of information on services outside the state. It was strongly opposed to the 13th, which allowed for travel outside the state, but did not call for a No vote.
Both the 13th and 14th amendments were passed. The 12th amendment bill was defeated, after a combination of liberal campaigners who did not support excluding a risk of suicide as a ground, and those in the PLC.

2002 Abortion Referendum

The Pro Life Campaign campaigned for a Yes vote on the Twenty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2002. A statement on their website read:
During the campaign, a member referenced the Finnish study published in the British Medical Journal which claimed women were six times more likely to commit suicide after abortion than if they went through with their pregnancies.
The Pro Life Campaign was the second largest spender during the referendum, spending €350,000. It received €200,000 of undisclosed donations during the campaign.

NGO status at UNESC

The Pro-Life Campaign has consultative NGO status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council, granted in 2011.
It has participated in regular sessions organised by the Council to oversee the various covenants affecting Ireland, and attended and made written submissions to Universal Periodic Reviews into Ireland.
In June 2015, the PLC participated in a General Discussion on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In February 2017, the PLC participated in the 66th Session of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, where it advocated against any change to Ireland's abortion law.

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013

The PLC organised a protest in Merrion Square in June 2013, as the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was being debated. Official figures put the crowd at 15,000 to 20,000 people, with the organisers claiming 50,000. Attendees included GAA Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte, Adele Best of Women Hurt, Jennifer Kehoe, Maria Steen and Íde Nic Mathúna, co-founder of Youth Defence. The Bill was approved in the Dáil by 127 votes to 31. It passed its final stage in the Seanad on 23 July 2013, by 39 votes to 14. It was signed into law on 30 July by Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland.
A 2014 "National Vigil" took place at Merrion Square on 3 May 2014, and was attended by about 4,500 people, with the organisers claiming 15,000. They criticised the newly passed Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act. Speakers included Cora Sherlock, Caroline Simons, and Lynn Coles of Women Hurt.

Irish General Election 2016

The Pro Life Campaign spent €40,000 during the 2016 Irish general election. They produced recommendations for whom to vote for based on which politicians voted for the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013

Citizens Assembly

In 2016 the Irish government established the Citizens' Assembly, a group of 99 citizens, to discuss the Eighth Amendment, and then make recommendation to the government. This is similar to the 2012 Constitutional Convention.
While the PLC criticised the Citizens' Assembly, claiming it has a pre-arranged outcome, it nonetheless participated, making a presentation to the Assembly in March 2017.

2018 referendum

In the referendum on the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018 to replace the provisions of Article 40.3.3º with a clause allowing for legislation on the termination of pregnancy, which passed by a two-thirds majority, the Pro Life Campaign organised the unsuccessful Love Both campaign.

LGBT issues

co-founded, and was Chairperson of the Pro Life campaign until December 2015. In 1993, as national secretary of Family Solidarity, he campaigned against the decriminalisation of homosexuality, calling it "unnatural", In 2015, in the lead up to the marriage equality referendum, he campaigned against it, and called for a no vote. Writing in The Brandsma Review after the referendum that approved same-sex marriage), he accused the media of lying, and complained about funding from outside the State.
Des Hanafin, co-founder, former leader and former honorary president, accused equality campaigners in the same-sex marriage referendum of spreading a "palpable climate of fear", and called for a No vote. His son, Senator John Hanafin resigned from Fianna Fáil rather than vote for civil partnerships for same sex couples in 2010.
In 2005, Pro Life Campaign members wrote to a Dáil committee arguing against legal recognition of same-sex couples. The submission from the North Tipperary branch opposed any legal recognition of same sex couples, claiming same sex relationships were an "unnatural union" and "totally unacceptable, and an attack upon the family". The Cork North West branch submission asked "why can’t they make their own legal arrangements distinct from marriage?" and claimed "a homosexual environment is
incomplete" for raising children