Scottish Catholic Observer

Sarah Haire, 23, a volunteer for campaign group Save The 8th, has been out talking to the people of Dublin for the past three weeks.

“We can’t do it without God. We’re asking you for your heartfelt prayers to save our Eighth Amendment,” she said. “It’s so important, especially in these last few minutes.”

She described the campaign as ‘really hard and devastating at times’ with many people ‘voting on the hard cases’ without thought being placed on what a repeal of the Eighth Amendment means in reality.

Her team has faced a lot of opposition in Dublin, the most pro-repeal area in Ireland, with one young female team member recently being head-butted.

However, she said it has been possible to change people’s minds by having conversations with them.

“The proposed legislation is so liberal that its shocking people into voting No,” Miss Haire said about health minister Simon Harris’ proposals for abortions ‘for any reason up to 12 weeks’ and for situations ‘like the mental health of women up to viability [of the unborn]—which could be six months.”

Miss Haire compared the situation to the UK where 97 per cent of abortions are provided on the limited grounds that continuation of the pregnancy will cause greater risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the woman than if an abortion was provided.

Miss Haire described the campaign as a ‘battle.’ She said she was ‘hopeful’ that they could save the Eighth but at times she had asked herself ‘how can we win, when even the government is against us?’

The main repeal group, Together for Yes, has the backing of several parties in Ireland. Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar along with his Tánaiste (deputy) Simon Coveney launched their party Fine Gael’s Yes Campaign.

Miss Haire highlighted a recent Supreme Court case ‘asking the question of whether or not the unborn child has any rights.’

It judged that other than the Eighth Amendment an unborn child has no constitutional rights.

“Basically it means that if we repeal the Eighth we are giving the government a blank slate and the unborn will have absolutely no rights up until birth,” Miss Haire said.

She described the No campaign, which would see the upholding of the Eighth Amendment of the right to life of the unborn, as a grassroots movement.

“People are so good, up and down the country—the No vote has been a grassroots movement with support from so many local people.” She added that a great encouragement has been the support of local communities.

“It is amazing to see people praying for us. It’s so important especially in these last few minutes. We’re seeing that Adoration is on all day in different places. We need it.”