Who’s Afraid of a Debate with a Pro-Lifer?

Pro-aborts in Dublin, apparently. Eoghan de Faoite of the tireless Irish group Youth Defence was planning to defend the pro-life position last week at a debate to be held at the nation’s largest university. The debate never happened. In an e-mail, YD reports:

The Literary and Historical Society of UCD, Ireland’s largest university, were forced to cancel a debate on abortion scheduled for Wednesday 27th September. The debate was called off on the day that it was supposed to have been held amid controversy that the L&H society could not secure a speaker to go head to head with a representative from Youth Defence who was also participating in the debate. Approximately 4 weeks ago Youth Defence were contacted by Ross Mc Guire of the L&H society and asked to participate in a debate that this group were organising for the 27th of September. Eoghan de Faoite of Youth Defence said today, “When I agreed to do the debate I was told by Mr McGuire that I would be the pro-life spokesperson, that they were securing somebody from the Well Woman clinic to uphold the pro-abortion position and that they would also be getting some student speakers to participate. I said all this was fine and that I was looking forward to the debate”. On the day of the debate a worker from the Youth Defence office phoned Mr McGuire to enquire about the time of the debate and to confirm that it was still going ahead. They were told by Mr McGuire that things had changed and that it was now only going to be students of UCD participating in the debate. Later on that day a YD member who studies in UCD spotted someone from the L&H society putting up cancellation notices over the posters that were advertising the intended the debate. When he questioned the L&H member about the debate he was told [that] it had been cancelled because they could not get anyone to defend the pro-abortion position. He was told that the L&H society had 2 pages of contact details for pro-abortion agencies and groups and that from this they couldn’t get anyone to commit. Eoghan de Faoite continued: “My understanding is that the debate was first changed to involve students only because they could not get someone to oppose Youth Defence and then it was eventually cancelled because they could not get enough support for the pro-abortion position. Either way, it seems to be a poor show for the so called “pro-choice” movement in Ireland.”

Aye.