Aims & Objectives

Youth Defence - the cutting edge of the pro-life movement"

Carol Coulter, The Irish Times, November 1997

It's simple really, our aim is to keep Ireland abortion-free. Educating people, helping mothers, lobbying, campaigning; all our objectives are undertaken with that aim.

We began protecting life in February 1992 when seven young people came together in Dublin to organise against abortion. This happened mostly because, at that time, the X case posed a very real threat to the unborn child. Pro-abortion opportunists, who are always only too happy to jump on such cases  to push their agenda, were shouting for abortion as an immediate priority. If legislation was not introduced before it was too late, babies would be born! The media – who, lets face it, have a little of a leaning in that direction anyway – lapped up the drama.

There was pretty much a strained silence from the rest of the country who, even if they are totally passive about it, are pro-life.  Their silence was sold as consent. If you were living in say, Paris, and got the Irish Independent every morning, you would think that Ireland was bristling with pro-abortion multitudes who were on the verge of a rebellion to overthrow a backward and out-of-touch junta.

So, we said ‘hold it there for one second’. It was time for young people to make their voices heard against abortion.

Youth Defence is Ireland's largest and most successful pro-life organisation. We exist to protect life from the moment of conception. We also work to:

• Prevent successive governments from acting on the Supreme Court decision in the X case to legalise abortion.
• Obtain a properly worded referendum which will establish full protection for unborn children from the moment of conception. We reject the undemocratic proposal of abortion legislation which can only provide for some form of legal abortion.
• Educate the Irish people about the reality of abortion, with emphasis on the distribution of factual pro-life information, on a nationwide basis.
• Organise an effective lobby of young people for the unborn by harnessing their powerful voice in defence of unborn children.  YD aims to express a consistent and determined voice for the voiceless, ensuring that Irish politicians are made aware of majority opposition to abortion.
• Uphold the power of action. Belief without action is like a body without breath. The time to act is now,before Ireland joins the rest of the world in the slaughter of innocent children. 

a new generation for life.