St. Patrick’s Day Parade Excludes Pro-Life Groups

Right to Life groups, excluded from New York City’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, rallied in protest today along the parade route, under the leadership of Irish Pro-Life USA.

Pro-Life advocates gathered, peacefully, on Midtown Manhattan sidewalks, holding their banners aloft, to highlight the continued failure of parade organizers to abide by repeated promises to give faithful Catholics, supportive of Church teaching, a presence in the parade.

Eleven years after organizers pledged to permit a pro-life group to march under its own banner, the world’s most famous Saint Patrick’s Day Parade still has not welcomed right to life units to its ranks.

Despite multiple applications and repeated efforts over a decade by various pro-life groups seeking permission to march, none have been successful. In 2015, parade officials said they were amending parade rules to permit pro-life groups to march. The regime of exclusion, however, continued.

While groups faithful to the religion of Saint Patrick are barred from the parade, organizations which reject Catholic morality are welcome.

LGBTQ groups, such as OUT@NBCUniversal, Lavender and the Green Alliance marched last year.

As Dawn Eskew, founder and President of Personhood Education NY, pointed out: “A group that directly attacks the teaching of the Catholic Church is acceptable, but groups that uphold the teaching of the Catholic Church are denied.”