Arriving in Dublin
by Danielle Versluys
In the past 5 days, we have walked from Belfast to Dublin on our Prayer Walk to Keep Ireland Abortion Free.
Tuesday morning was probably my favorite part of the walk. Our team took off at 8:00 over the mountains. Okay, so they were more like hills, but they were large compared to the slight bumps we had been climbing over in days previous.
We walked along R132, the old Dublin Road that was the primary route into Dublin from the north until the large A1 freeway was built nearby. The footpath we took for most of the walk through the mountain pass was absolutely breathtaking; green farms were tucked into the hills along one side and a tall bank of yellow flowering bushes on the other side separated us from the main road.
We covered a lot of ground and met a lot of cows while we prayed for the mobilization of the church in Ireland.
Brandi Swindell, founder and President of Stanton Healthcare, is my dear friend and fellow warrior in this fight for life. She and I walked together for much of the trip, and when we were not praying together for the Irish people we were strategizing and planning for the future of Stanton Healthcare.
My psalm for the prayer walk was Psalm 28:
To you, O Lord, I call;
my rock, be not deaf to me,
lest, if you be silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,
when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands
toward your most holy sanctuary.
Do not drag me off with the wicked,
with the workers of evil,
who speak peace with their neighbors
while evil is in their hearts.
Give to them according to their work
and according to the evil of their deeds;
give to them according to the work of their hands;
render them their due reward.
Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
or the work of his hands,
he will tear them down and build them up no more.
Blessed be the Lord!
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.
The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.
Appropriate, I thought. My heart goes out to the people of Ireland, who have fought so hard and so long to keep abortion at bay. I try to imagine how I would have felt on the eve of something like Roe vs. Wade; knowing what has become of our society since (child abuse more than quadrupled, women killed and maimed for life, millions of families torn apart by the effect of legalized murder), I think I would have felt the same level of panic the Irish are feeling now.
The threatened legislation would “only” allow for abortion in the event a pregnant woman’s life is threatened or she herself threatens suicide. Regardless of the facts that abortion is not the correct response to a mother’s life in danger and killing a child is never the answer to a mental health issue, it is foolish to believe that abortion would be "rare" following the legislation.
In the States, laws allow for abortions up to the day of birth if a woman demonstrates that continuing her pregnancy would harm her mentally - women have used that loophole to get abortions by claiming they wanted to be able to go to a concert but wouldn't be able to while pregnant and thus continuing the pregnancy would cause emotional harm. See what I mean?
Britain is a perfect example - they did exactly what the Irish propose to do. In 1967, abortion was introduced to prevent “injury to the physical or mental health of a woman”. In 2009, almost 200,000 babies were killed by abortion in the UK.
Lord, save your people and bless your heritage.
Read on about Danielle's trip to Ireland: Her final post from Ireland can be read here!