> I've read a lot about Youth Defence but never seen them. When they say "youth" defence, what exactly do they mean? Defending people that don't yet exist?
They had been pretty quiet lately. Until this week, the only time they'd surfaced recently was in their incarnation as the Mother and Child Campaign, to testify in front of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution against the introduction of civil partnerships. Their testimony was described by one Senator (a Fianna Fáiler I think) as being "tantamount to incitement to hatred". They also put up a few anti-stem cell research posters with pictures of little children saying "don't use me for spare parts!" Nice people, these.
But anyway, and probably inevitably, they've resurfaced in response to the Miss D case. I wasn't able to get to any of the Four Courts demonstrations but apparently they were up to their usual tricks - bringing children along to swell their numbers, videotaping and threatening pro-choice demonstrators, etc. Hopefully they'll crawl back under their rocks now that Miss D has been given the freedom to travel.
> I sort of agree but not with the idea of suffering psychological trauma for life being related to religion. That may well have originated with the Church but I'd say it's a pretty well accepted view in secular circles internationally and not just regarding abortion. Every minor unpleasant event in people's life seems to be inflated to end-of-the-world proportions and people are viewed as sad and fragile little individuals. Secular religions, eh?
The idea that abortion causes psychological trauma for life is definitely not a well accepted view in secular circles internationally.