The Iona Institute » Thousands expected at ‘Rally for Life’ in Dublin on Saturday

Thousands are expected to gather at the annual Rally for Life on Saturday ^[1], where speakers will urge the government to take action to tackle “surging abortion numbers”.

The gathering takes place in the context of what organisers describe as a “steep and disturbing” rise in the number of abortions taking place in Ireland – and the potential introduction of legislation which would see the law radically expanded to allow abortion at will up to 6 months gestation. New figures show that at least 8,156 abortions took place in 2022.

Commenting on the 22% rise in abortion numbers last year,” Rally for Life spokeswoman Megan Ní Scealláin asked: “Are women being led to believe that abortion is the only option?”.

She said that the government needed to take urgent action to tackle the spiralling abortion rate – and that it was “almost beyond belief that a strategy that would increase the abortion rate further was instead being considered”.

“One of the messages coming from the Rally is that TDs are being reminded that they promised voters in 2018 that the 3-day wait would be a ‘safeguard’ – and that the pro-life movement is reminding voters that scrapping that provision would be a breach of promise to voters,” she said.