A parish priest in Northern Ireland barred the Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin from holding a meeting at a church-owned hall earlier this month over its pro-abortion stance.
The party has historically enjoyed significant Catholic support.
The Irish News reported that Fr Eugene O'Neill, parish priest in Coalisland, 15 miles north of Armagh, cancelled a Sinn Féin meeting at St Patrick's Hall “after being contacted by pro-life campaigners.”
In 2018 party members endorsed the repeal of the Eighth Amendment in the Republic of Ireland, which protected unborn children. The party has endorsed legalized abortion in cases of rape, fetal abnormality, and where a woman’s mental or physical health faces serious threat, and it supported the liberalization of abortion laws in Northern Ireland imposed by the British parliament.
