Courtney McGrailDear Editor, Last week, the media reported about a pro-life pregnancy counselling agency that is apparently giving women inaccurate advice in order to pressure them into not having an abortion. This was well covered by RTÉ, and a man from the agency in question featured on Liveline. He did not do the pro-life cause very many favours with his performance.
But my question is why RTÉ and other media do not pay at least as much attention when a pro-choice organisation lands itself in trouble?
For example, in 2012, the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) was caught out in an undercover ‘sting’ operation giving dangerous advice to pregnant women about the abortion pill. The former Master of the Rotunda maternity hospital expressed grave concern about what they were doing. This was covered in The Irish Independent but received very little coverage aside from this.
Irish women who travel to England for abortions sometimes use clinics run by the Marie Stopes organisation. But recently health inspectors in England told Marie Stopes’ clinics not to carry out any more surgical abortions until further notice because of health and safety concerns.
Both the IFPA and Marie Stopes are vastly bigger, more important organisations than the tiny pro-life counselling agency that was in the news last week. The IFPA receives State funding.
By any objective measure the IFPA story and the Marie Stopes story deserved far more coverage than they received. Why didn’t they get it? Can it be due to the fact that our media have such a pronounced bias in favour of legalised abortion and do not like to report anything that might thwart bringing this about?
It is hard to reach any other conclusion.
Yours etc.,
Patricia Fitzgerald
Cork,
Co. Cork.