Belfast Rally for Life a 'call for peace' against "violence of abortion" on 25th anniversary of Good Friday agreement

Image credit: Precious Life (2019 March for Life in Belfast)

A major pro-life Rally which will take place in Belfast at the weekend, will hear that 25 years after the Good Friday agreement, communities must “call for peace” in order to “end the violence of abortion”. 

Organisers Precious Life said that, because of the Covid lockdown, the gathering in Custom House Square would be the first major pro-life event here since Westminster forced on Northern Ireland in 2020. 

“Three years on, the Rally will show the plight of our unborn babies has not been forgotten,” the group said. “On this 25th anniversary year of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, our politicians must be reminded there can never be true peace in Northern Ireland while unborn babies are being killed. 

“We will join with thousands of others to recognise that everyone has a right to life, and a right to be protected from harm, and we cannot say that has been achieved in Northern Ireland when unborn babies are being killed under a law imposed by Westminster,” the pro-life group said. 

 They also said that the right to offer women better choices than abortion was being outlawed. 

“One of the Good Friday Agreement’s main commitments to Human Rights was respect for the civil and religious rights of everyone in the community. Yet, come 7th May, anyone praying outside an abortion centre in Northern Ireland will be criminalised and subject to fines exceeding £2000,” spokeswoman Bernadette Smyth said.

“We will call on the Stormont Assembly and Westminster Government to respect the civil rights and religious liberties of everyone, by repealing the draconian “Abortion Buffer Zones” law in Northern Ireland.” 

The Rally For Life, Belfast is the biggest annual pro-life event in the jurisdiction, attracting thousands each year to a high-energy, colourful, pro-life parade with  supporters from across the political divide. 

Gathering in Custom House Square at 2pm, the Rally will march along High Street into Donegal Place and around the City Hall, returning by the same route to the Square.

Speakers at the Rally include Fr Sean Gough, a priest from Wolverhampton, who was arrested for silently praying within a buffer zone outside an abortion centre in Birmingham. 

He was also charged for having a sticker on his car which said ‘unborn lives matter’. Fr Gough says, “Whatever your views are on abortion, we can all agree that a democratic country cannot be in the business of prosecuting thought crime”.

Another speaker, Dr Dermot Kearney, recently won a significant victory at the Medical Council in Britain in relation to providing abortion pill reversal treatment to women. 

Dr Kearney says, “My hope is that women across the UK will be told by medical regulators and abortion providers that abortion reversal treatment is safe, that it is available, and that success is possible if they regret their decision to have an abortion and choose to seek help.”

Also speaking is Conor O’Dowd is a young Drogheda man whose campaign message is, ‘I have Down Syndrome and I love my life’ – and who made a powerful appeal to the Rotunda Hospital after it was revealed that 95% of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome there were aborted. 

Precious Life said that the “death toll of unborn babies since Westminster forced abortion on Northern Ireland is now over 4136.”

“We must continue to demand the protection of our unborn babies and their mothers from abortion. The Rally For Life is our opportunity to say loud and clear, Stop abortion violence because peace begins in the womb.” 

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This piece was first published on Gript.