Margaret Tighe, the most prominent figure in Australia’s pro-life movement, has died at the age of 94.
Tighe worked tirelessly in pro-life causes like abortion, IVF, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research for over 60 years. She and her late husband Ron were pharmacists, but she stepped back from her profession to care for her family and the pro-life cause.
She is survived by her four children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Bernie Finn, a former politician from Victoria summed up her achievements in a Facebook post.
“Margaret Tighe was a champion for civil rights and a warrior for the defenceless, the aged, the weak and vulnerable. One headline best summed up Margaret by splashing across the page (above her photo), ‘If babies could vote, this woman would be Prime Minister’.”
Chancellor of the Sydney Archdiocese Monica Doumit paid tribute to Tighe.
“Her efforts in political advocacy, grassroots activism and personal witness paved the way for generations of pro-lifers after her. Right up until the end of her life, Margaret was a champion for the dignity of the human person.”
In an obituary, her organisation, Right to Life Australia, said that Tighe was “a determined and indefatigable leader against all odds.”
Tighe founded Right to Life Australia in 1978 to lobby for “providing protection to the vulnerable in all aspects of life”. In the early years she adopted civil disobedience tactics drawn from the United States. In 1978 Tighe and her supporters were hauled away by police after obstructing the entrance to the abortion clinic of Dr Bertram Wainer in East Melbourne.
She used her influence to target pro-abortion politicians. One journalist claimed that she was “single-handedly responsible for the defeat of the Brumby government” in the 2010 Victorian state election. In 2017, when legalising euthanasia was an issue in Victoria, she told The Age newspaper: “We’re taking the fight right up to the enemy. The gloves are off.”
As Right to Life Australia commented: “Her innate ability as a powerful strategist made her a fearsome adversary and she undeniably has been the most recognised leader of the pro-life movement in Australia’s history.”
The best-known of a new generation of pro-life campaigners, Dr Joanna Howe, praised Tighe as a woman of great courage. “She had to deal with so much abuse and hate. She’s called a foetus worshipper, a Catholic fanatic, you name it, all of the things that they throw at me and you,” she said on Facebook. “I’m a baby in this fight, compared to Margaret Tighe and we all stand on her shoulders.”
Monica Doumit acknowledged that it had always been an uphill battle for Tighe. But she believes that Tighe will be rewarded for her tenacity.
“We are now in a situation where abortion until birth is legal across the country and, with the exception of the Northern Territory, euthanasia and assisted suicide is available everywhere. It is likely that Margaret would have been discouraged as she watched MPs cast votes against the lives of those for whom she had spent her whole life advocating,” Doumit said.
“However, these anti-life realities would have been visited upon us much sooner if not for Margaret and those she inspired. While she would never have known in her earthly life how many lives she saved, we pray that she will now be greeted by many of these souls in heaven and intercede for the pro-life movement from there.”
