Leading pro-life doctor wins Protection of Life award

Dr. Dermot Kearney, a Irish leading pro-life Catholic doctor has said he was ‘overwhelmed’ when he received a prestigious award for his life-saving work.

On the 12th of April, Kearney received the Anton Neuwirth Prize for the Protection of Life award in Slovakia ‘for providing medical care and for testifying to his courage in helping women avert pharmacological abortion.’

Dr. Kearney has saved countless babies in the UK by offering women abortion reversal after they had taken the first of two abortion pills but changed their mind. The abortion pill reversal is done by providing progesterone, which reverses the effects of the first abortion pill (mifepristone). 

In May 2021, Dr. Kearney was the target of an investigation for providing progesterone to women who had taken the abortion pill. However, in March of the following year, sanctions against the doctor were dropped and he was no longer under investigation after the General Medical Council found that there was no wrongdoing on his part.

The ceremony for the Anton Neuwirth Prize for the Protection of Life took place at the gala dinner of the Choose Life conference in Rajecké Teplice on 12th April. The prize is named after Anton Neuwirth, a prominent Slovak doctor, who was a founding member of the Forum of Life. Forum of Life is a Slovak organisation that aims to “create a society that respects human life from conception to natural death”.

The Anton Neuwirth Prize is awarded annually by the Forum of Life to persons or organisations who have significantly contributed to the protection of human life.

Responding to the award, Kearney said: “I am overwhelmed by the love (and) kindness demonstrated by the beautiful pro-life people of Slovakia at this weekend’s Forum for Life (Fórum života) Conference in Rajecké Teplice, for honouring me with the Anton Neuwirth Award (and) inviting me to deliver a presentation on APR.”

Other prominent pro-life figures shared their support for Dr. Dermot, with Isabel Vaughan-Spruce from March For Life UK saying that the award was “much deserved.”

Life Institute congratulated Dr Kearney on his “tremendous work in provisioning real, compassionate help and support for mothers and babies.”