Thousands in Ireland Hold Vigil for 'Pro-Life Promise'

Religion Today | Updated: Jan 22, 2013

Thousands in Ireland Hold Vigil for 'Pro-Life Promise'

As many as 30,000 people attended a pro-life vigil in Dublin's Merrion Square on Saturday evening to oppose any changes to abortion legislation in Ireland, CBN News reports. According to Dr. Eoghan de Faoite of Youth Defence, rally attendees demanded in unison that Prime Minister Enda Kenny and the government keep their "pro-life promise." Abortion is currently illegal in Ireland except to save the life of the mother, but the government said last month it would legislate abortion in "certain cases" after a 31-year-old Indian dentist, Savita Halappanavar, was widely reported to have died in October because she was denied an abortion by Galway University Hospital. But the journalist who first reported the story has since admitted that the facts of Halappanavar's death were "muddled," and Irish pro-life leaders say the autopsy shows Halappanavar died from an infection caused by an antibiotic-resistant form of E. coli following a miscarriage. They insist hospital records show there was no request for an abortion, quoting doctors who say her death had nothing to do with Ireland's ban on abortion.



Thousands in Ireland Hold Vigil for 'Pro-Life Promise'