Amnesty International Pushes Abortion with Anti-Catholicism

 

Last year, Amnesty international in Ireland announced that they would be campaigning not just for the legalization of prostitutes but also the repeal of Ireland’s Eight Amendment. This amendment guarantees that equal protection will be granted to the life of the unborn child within its mother’s womb and that, outside of life threatening illness and events, it cannot be aborted.

As a result, Ireland has one of the toughest anti-abortion regimes in Europe. It also means that thousands of Irish babies (both healthy and disabled) are thus granted a much higher chance of survival, which contributes to Ireland’s very low infant mortality rates. As one might expect, however, the pro-abortion zealots in Ireland hate this. Aided by their liberal allies in the media — and after years of  working behind the scenes — they sense an opportunity to implement their liberal utopia now that the Catholic Church is in disarray, conservatism is in full retreat, and the Left is fresh from their victory in the gay marriage referendum. They want abortion-on-demand, and they want it now.

Of, course the more clever liberals will never say this and, instead, speak the language of exemptions: fetal anomalies, rape, incest, etc. But while Ireland is changing (alas, not for the better) this isn’t politically feasible yet. Irish people may be more liberal, but they are not crazy. They know exactly what abortion on demand is, and evil is its name. This is why even a liberal junior minister has said that pushing for abortion-on-demand today is folly. That an election is coming up too has nothing to do with his considerations (cough cough).

This is where Amnesty International Ireland come in. Under the direction of their uber-liberal chief executive Colm O’Gorman — a victim of sex abuse himself and a brave campaigner for clerical victims — the group has made abortion liberalization a key element of its human rights agenda (the irony is not lost on me, either). Amnesty International now wants a full decriminalization and has begun an active campaign to accomplish these aims. They are roping in celebrities, entertainers, liberal apologists, actors (the video above is narrated by Liam Neeson), politicians, and singers to campaign for repeal of the Eighth Amendment.

What is also worrying about the video is not just its ending calling for the repeal of the Eighth but something else. That something, of course, is anti-Catholicism. I don’t have to go into detail here: just watch the video. I mean, seriously, watch it. I am shocked that such an ad could be used or even made in 2015.

The push for abortion is but the last few seconds of the video; the rest is simply utilizing a fog of hatred against the Catholic Church, blaming it for stopping abortion, putting women at risk, influencing Ireland’s constitution for the worse, and holding back “progress.” It is vile and, of course, nonsense. Only a liberal fool would see abortion rights as progress. Only a human rights organization founded by a Catholic afflicted with cultural marxism and a loss of purpose would see championing abortion as worthy of the term “human rights,” but that’s another story.

There are many things the Catholic Church did wrong in Ireland over the years, where it defied the teachings of Jesus and His commandments, but its defense of the unborn was — and remains — a testament to righteousness and following His words. Even many atheists who hate the Church, but are themselves pro-life, openly state this. Given their personal circumstances, some of them are alive because of it and know it.

But I suppose this is one further piece of evidence of how modern Ireland is changing and how anti-Catholic its liberal elites have become. The gay marriage referendum was just the awakening. I can’t honestly put into words without cursing how I am offended by this. Can anyone seriously imagine such a video being created about Muslims or Jews or any other religious group (not that it would make it right) and even being allowed airtime on YouTube? Hopefully a lot of people will see it not for the ad, but for the bigotry.

Alas, I suppose many will see it and just ignore it. You can say anything you want about about conservatives, Catholics and pro-lifers in Ireland. They don’t benefit from hate speech protection, just abuse.

And to Liam Neeson, who grew up Catholic in a Protestant town in Northern Ireland, where Catholics were regularly abused and bullied … I’m never paying to see you in a film again.

Published in Culture, Politics, Religion & Philosophy
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  1. Merina Smith Inactive
    Merina Smith
    @MerinaSmith

    I discussed the changes in Ireland with a few people on our recent trip there, Paddy, and heard a lot of dismay and sorrow at being railroaded.  The left has no compunction about demonizing anyone who opposes them.  It has been going on here for a long time too.  We must fight it calmly, but firmly.  In the end lies have a way of backfiring.

    We loved Ireland. What a beautiful country and what divine music.

    • #1
  2. Paddy Siochain Member
    Paddy Siochain
    @PaddySiochain

    What did you make Merina, as a Mormon. Im obviously biased. But did you see it as Anti catholic? Thanks for nice things you said too about my country.

    • #2
  3. Merina Smith Inactive
    Merina Smith
    @MerinaSmith

    Oh my goodness, yes!  Showing the church all fallen down and the Celtic crosses and that stupid “ghost” talk and how this is all the past. Good grief. They are craven.  And they want to kill babies and have the gall to claim they are saving lives. There is no level to which they will not stoop.

    • #3
  4. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    I expected to defend (if only to myself) the video. But no. It’s stupid and shallow.

    • #4
  5. Paddy Siochain Member
    Paddy Siochain
    @PaddySiochain

    Glad to hear it Kate. I had your piece in mind on abortion, read it a while ago, didnt agree with it. But was well written.

    This video and message is despicable.

    • #5
  6. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    I’m so sorry this is happening in Ireland, Paddy. I’ve never been to Ireland, was hoping to go someday, I love reading about Ireland and it’s history. I did make it to Wales, and have seen magnificent old church ruins. They are beautiful, majestic, and a shame they were allowed to fall into ruins. I can’t hear what is being said and I didn’t find a transcript but how are the Catholics responsible for laws or the repeal of them?

    • #6
  7. Augustine Member
    Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Paddy Siochain:

    Only a human rights organisation founded by a Catholic afflicted with cultural marxism and a loss of purpose would see championing abortion as worthy of term human rights too but that’s another story.

    I think it needs to be said again and again that pro-abortion folks have no legitimate business using the term “human rights.”  They deny any human rights.

    (They might believe in “person’s rights” if a person is defined according to sentience or intelligence and not according to membership in the human species.)

    Anyway, thanks for the post.  You said it well yourself earlier: RIP Catholic Ireland.

    Perhaps the real Ireland lives on in Aslan’s country, and everything you ever loved about the dying one was a mere shadow of that real one.

    • #7
  8. Augustine Member
    Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Ok, so I just watched the video.  The argument seems to be this:

    Unstated Premise: Pro-life laws are rooted in Catholic dogma alone.

    Stated Premise: Ireland isn’t a Catholic country anymore.

    Conclusion: So pro-life laws should be repealed.

    It should go without saying that the first premise is false.  But let it be said: The unstated premise is false.

    (The stated premise might be true.)

    • #8
  9. Merina Smith Inactive
    Merina Smith
    @MerinaSmith

    I don’t think we should be giving up on Catholic Ireland.  The times we live in separate the wheat from the tares. There have always been challenges to the faithful that have done that.  In a way they are necessary.  So those who were never converted drop away. That just means you know who really has faith.  We cannot just buckle under at the first sign of challenge.  It must make us stronger in our faith.

    • #9
  10. Robert McReynolds Member
    Robert McReynolds
    @

    Lord Christ, please deliver us from the evils of this world.

    • #10
  11. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I used to write Christmas cards to political prisoners in the Soviet Union for Amnesty International once upon a time. In addition to the message of hope and faith, just getting a card from someone in the U.S. not only let the prisoner know that he wasn’t forgotten, it put his jailers on notice as well.

    I suppose that somewhere they still do some good. Not in Ireland though. Not one more nickel of my money; not one more second of my time.

    • #11
  12. rosegarden sj dad Member
    rosegarden sj dad
    @rosegardensjdad

    I’ve said this before on Ricochet: I’m an atheist (raised episcopalean). But it is very obvious to me that the Global Liberal Elite has targeted Christianity as an obstacle in its path to world domination, because it’s a non governmental power they cannot control.  They will use splinter issues like gay marriage and abortion to target, marginalize, and diminish the Church. They will spare Islam and Judaism for now, and play upon historic grievances to enlist them in the fight against the Church. However, when the Church falls, they’ll go after the Jews and the Muslims, too.

    • #12
  13. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    rosegarden sj dad: They will spare Islam and Judaism for now, and play upon historic grievances to enlist them in the fight against the Church. However, when the Church falls, they’ll go after the Jews and the Muslims, too.

    You’re not keeping up with what is happening in this world. France is trying to get the UN to take control of Temple Mount for the muslims. And the muslims are killing Jews left and right. The muslims have invaded Europe and it about to collapse.

    • #13
  14. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    My mom was a devoted donator to Amnesty Int’l for years. Oddly … it all stopped when I had to take over her finances.

    • #14
  15. Mate De Inactive
    Mate De
    @MateDe

    I always did think that Ireland was a last bastion of hope as far as abortion was concerned, this newest push really concerns me. The country of my grandparents has been corrupted by the left in the same way the United States has been, is there a light out of the tunnel?

    • #15
  16. Wiley Inactive
    Wiley
    @Wiley

    rosegarden sj dad: I’m an atheist (raised episcopalean).

    Episcopalean… that will do it. As a Christian, I a more eager to have a truth seeking atheist on the team than a luke warm Christian. 

    • #16
  17. Paddy Siochain Member
    Paddy Siochain
    @PaddySiochain

    Id take a pro life atheist conservative any day over a pro choice liberal Christian to be clear.

    • #17
  18. Crabby Appleton Inactive
    Crabby Appleton
    @CrabbyAppleton

    Here’s the idea for your campaign to fight them graphically. Have posters made with a salient slogan(s) from one or more Amnesty International spoxes and have an image of Josef Stalin with a speech balloon that says “No baby, no problem”. And then you put a poster on every utility pole and vacant public wall space in the country. You could probably fund the project through a crowd sourcing web site. I’d ‘do contrubute.

    • #18
  19. John Penfold Member
    John Penfold
    @IWalton

    Amnesty international has never been about rights, they push left wing agendas everywhere always including support for narco terrorists in Colombia.   But they’re in good company, under Obama/Hillary/Kerry our State Department pushes the same abortion LGBT agenda.

    • #19
  20. Karen Humiston Inactive
    Karen Humiston
    @KarenHumiston

    That great son of Ireland, William Butler Yeats, was prophetic about his own land when he wrote these words:

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre

    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

    The best lack all conviction, while the worst

    Are full of passionate intensity.

    • #20
  21. Douglas Inactive
    Douglas
    @Douglas

    Robert McReynolds:Lord Christ, please deliver us from the evils of this world.

    Only when he returns. Until then, we’re gonna get it good and hard. And we let it happen.

    • #21
  22. Sandy Member
    Sandy
    @Sandy

    “A constitution written for a different time”–how much damage has been done when the thought behind that was let loose upon the world.

    • #22
  23. Douglas Inactive
    Douglas
    @Douglas

    Paddy Siochain:

    And to Liam Neeson, who grew up Catholic in a Protestant town in Northern Ireland, where Catholics were regularly abused and bullied … I’m never paying to see you in a film again.

    It’s a hard thing to do, but the sooner we refuse modern Hollywood and all its evils, the better off we’ll be. Personally, and as a society. For every good guy like Rob Long, there’s a thousand people preaching evil in the guise of liberation, and you’re paying them to do it. Think about that.

    Hollywood… the press… the university system… cut off their money. Start with your own spending habits.

    • #23
  24. Umbra Fractus Inactive
    Umbra Fractus
    @UmbraFractus

    Paddy Siochain: And to Liam Neeson, who grew up Catholic in a Protestant town in Northern Ireland, where Catholics were regularly abused and bullied … I’m never paying to see you in a film again.

    Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to have a Twitter account, so I can’t say that to him directly.

    • #24
  25. Umbra Fractus Inactive
    Umbra Fractus
    @UmbraFractus

    rosegarden sj dad:I’ve said this before on Ricochet: I’m an atheist (raised episcopalean). But it is very obvious to me that the Global Liberal Elite has targeted Christianity as an obstacle in its path to world domination, because it’s a non governmental power they cannot control. They will use splinter issues like gay marriage and abortion to target, marginalize, and diminish the Church. They will spare Islam and Judaism for now, and play upon historic grievances to enlist them in the fight against the Church. However, when the Church falls, they’ll go after the Jews and the Muslims, too.

    Aided and abetted by the willful blindness of “libertarians.”

    • #25
  26. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    That was an incredibly creepy video because of the blatant attack on the church -It isn’t strange that Christianity is under attack in Ireland – it’s under attack worldwide – evil has gained a foothold, not seen since the days of the apostles says Pope Francis –

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/pope-francis-says-the-bible-is-a-highly-dangerous-book-147993/

    now is the time to put on your boxing gloves. I liked the suggestion about the Stalin sign – no babies – no worries. Just print them and hang everywhere. Find an equally famous person to make a counter-ad.  Has no one in Ireland seen the Planned Parenthood stories? Even that battle is not won – But most of all, remember the fight is not against flesh and blood. I’m reading an amazing book called Beneath Another Sun by Ernst Lohar, 1943 – find a used copy on line and read – based on true facts during WWII – if you need inspiration on how to wage war against any enemy.   Remember, you are the…Fightin’ Irish!

    • #26
  27. Mate De Inactive
    Mate De
    @MateDe

    It seems to me that sex with no consequences seems to be a big tenet of leftism, it’s not just feminists. Is that because it is the ultimate pleasure, and with no children or the risk of children there will be no marriage, no families, no loyalties to anything or anyone other than yourself?

    I just thought of this so, it’s not well thought out but the left has spent many, many years trying to tear down sexual limitations and now they have been unleashed and have mainstreamed many sexual practices that were once considered fringe and immoral. What is the ultimate goal for many of these people?

    • #27
  28. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Mate De:It seems to me that sex with no consequences seems to be a big tenet of leftism, it’s not just feminists. Is that because it is the ultimate pleasure, and with no children or the risk of children there will be no marriage, no families, no loyalties to anything or anyone other than yourself?

    I just thought of this so, it’s not well thought out but the left has spent many, many years trying to tear down sexual limitations and now they have been unleashed and have mainstreamed many sexual practices that were once considered fringe and immoral. What is the ultimate goal for many of these people?

    My generation started it and now the current young generation is left with thinking it was a good idea – in fact, from what I have read going on in campuses, and just the dating scene in general, it sounds like women are much less respected today than ever. Men are being raised with access to porn at a young age on line, thinking that is normal, when in fact it diminishes love and respect – now with the church struggling for air – kids are wandering through a maze of garbage wondering what direction to go for lasting peace and happiness.

    • #28
  29. Podkayne of Israel Inactive
    Podkayne of Israel
    @PodkayneofIsrael

    It’s a shallow, cheap shot all right. But that leaves you with the entire middle ground open for the taking. The opposition should make it clear that it’s deeply concerned with the well-being of women and babies, but just as profoundly separated from the whole Magdalene Sisters harshness.

    • #29
  30. Publius Menpaen Inactive
    Publius Menpaen
    @PubliusMenpaen

    Honestly, when Ireland descended into favoring the political preferences of a man in a dress who publicly goes by the name “Panti Bliss” that should have been a wake-up call.

    Hopefully the Church rebounds, but it’s doubtful when I imagine the lawsuits are already rolling as people get the message that always follows any successful expansion of sodomy-based privileges: The only power you should bend your knees to is the radical homosexuals – at risk of fine and imprisonment if you don’t.

    • #30
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