Abortion activists are planning a march in Ireland this weekend to demand that the nation legalize abortion on demand and stop protecting unborn babies.
However, most of the support for the pro-abortion campaign appears to be coming from outside the country and not its own citizens.
Strong evidence suggests that American billionaire George Soros is using his fortune to push Ireland to legalize abortion. In a column for Eurasia Review this week, William Donohue pointed out that Soros gave money to three of the pro-abortion groups that are promoting the “March for Choice” in Dublin and about 20 other cities this weekend.
Donohue said Soros’s Open Society Foundations funds Amnesty International Ireland, the Abortion Rights Campaign and the Irish Family Planning Association, all of which are involved the effort to repeal Ireland’s Eighth Amendment, which protects the right to life for unborn babies.
Abortion activists expect as many as 20,000 people at the pro-abortion marches this weekend, the Irish Times reports. Dublin is the location for the main march, but organizers told the newspaper that 20 events will be occurring globally in solidarity with abortion activists in Ireland.
Forbes ranks Soros as the 23rd richest person in the world. He is a regular major donor to pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia groups. Soros is just one source of anti-life groups’ funding. Warren Buffett, the third richest in the world, also is a major donor to pro-abortion causes, as is Bill Gates, who ranks first, and Mark Zuckerberg, who ranks sixth.
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In August, a leaked document from Soros’s Open Society Foundations confirmed that the billionaire is using his fortune to push abortion on pro-life countries. The document showed the foundations’ three-year plan through 2019 to target laws in Ireland, Mexico and other pro-life countries, the Catholic News Agency reported.
In reference to Ireland, the document said, “With one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, a win there could impact other strongly Catholic countries in Europe, such as Poland, and provide much needed proof that change is possible, even in highly conservative places.”
In the next three years, the Soros-backed abortion plan is to “stem, mitigate and reverse the tide of fetal personhood laws and constitutional amendments” and to generate “a robust set of organizations advancing and defending sexual and reproductive rights and injecting new thinking/strategy into the field,” according to the leaked document.
A spokesperson from the Soros group confirmed the authenticity of the document and the pro-abortion plan to CNA.
“We stand by our work and are proud to support all our grantees,” the spokesperson said. “In some cases, the materials reflect big-picture strategies over several years from within the Open Society Foundations network, which supports human rights and the rule of law in more than 100 countries around the world.”
Cora Sherlock, deputy chairperson of the Pro-Life Campaign in Ireland and a regular contributor to LifeNews, told CNA that outside pro-abortion groups have been trying to impose their agenda on the Irish people for years.
“One thing is certain,” Sherlock said. “Those pushing abortion in Ireland have vast resources that they didn’t have just a few years ago. The money is not being raised from ordinary Irish citizens. That is for sure.”
“The idea that an outside body would fund and organize groups in Ireland to dismantle Ireland’s protection for the unborn child would represent a gross interference and total contempt for the Irish people,” she continued.
In 2015, Life Institute reported another American billionaire named Chuck Feeney also poured about $18 million into Ireland’s pro-abortion groups through his foundation. Bill Gates and the Ford Foundation also reportedly gave millions of dollars to the Centre for Reproductive Rights, which also is pushing abortion in Ireland, according to Life Institute.
