Brendan O’Regan
Brendan O’Reagan reports on the ‘totally unchallenging’ and ‘not very encouraging’ coverage on abortion
It was a ‘funny enough’ kind of week, with Newstalk back continuing to drive the repeal the Eighth (Life Equality) Amendment as an election issue. I wouldn’t mind so much if the coverage was fair and balanced. They’ve gone so far as to try a billboard campaign for the upcoming election asking ‘Time to terminate the 8th?’ Mind you, it does include the image of an unborn child in the womb…
Last week it started on the Tuesday morning, on the Pat Kenny Show, with a totally unchallenging report on the work of the Irish Family Planning Association. And if the listener didn’t know already, the interview with Evelyn Geraghty, a Director of Counselling at the IFPA, clearly showed that this body was not a neutral party.
She emphasised how stressful it was for women to have to attend face-to-face counselling to get information on abortion and alternative choices. She complained about “rogue agencies” promoting lies, deceit and myths like abortion being wrong or unchristian! She must have had the clinic’s resident theologian on the job.
She disagreed with these unnamed groups showing graphic images of “blown up foetuses”.
Funny enough there was no mention of the HSE investigations of the IFPA for the dodgy and dangerous advice they allegedly gave to women. She spoke of women coming back after abortions feeling “huge relief”, but no mention at all of the women who regret or are traumatised or physically harmed by their abortions.
By Thursday Newstalk was giving prominence, especially on the Pat Kenny Show, to its Red C telephone poll on abortion and the findings were not very encouraging. Of course it’s a bit of a swizz – what do you expect when the media cover the abortion story in an unfair way for years? If there was a thorough and fair discussion and if the media showed the ugliness of abortion as frequently as they show many other forms of ugliness there would be a different result.
Even if they phrased the questions differently a different result would be produced, but that wouldn’t suit certain agendas.
As Shane Coleman pointed out on that show, it was significant to see that women were less inclined to favour terminations than men, and it was also noteworthy that over 40% were not in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment even though they had taken a pro-choice view on other questions. It was worrying though that such a high number (61%) favoured abortion being an option in case of significant or non-fatal foetal abnormalities.
So much for children’s rights and our attitude to the disabled.
On that day’s Lunchtime, also on Newstalk, the Irish Catholic columnist David Quinn pointed out some of the anomalies in the poll and made a strong defence of all human beings, born, unborn, disabled or not, having an equal right to life – a no-brainer one would have thought in these days when equality has never been so popular.
On the Pat Kenny Show on the Friday there was a student debate on the issue from NUI Galway and it wasn’t that impressive. The pro-life side got off to a good start, but some of the speakers were quite hesitant and nervous. The pro-choice side promoted the ludicrous notion of ‘safe abortion’ (safe, when a baby always dies?).
One pro-life speaker from the audience raised Pat Kenny’s ire when he complained about the selection of speakers for the debate, and though he was too dismissive of the young man, I was inclined to agree with Kenny to a point. The man should have made his point briefly and then moved on to use the valuable air time to promote the pro-life perspective.
The abortion debate is on a different level in the USA but there are similarities. I watched some of the Walk for Life West Coast on EWTN last Saturday night and was impressed by the size of the crowd and the enthusiasm of the young participants, many of them young adults.
One young woman noted the increasing popularity of tolerance in her society but found no tolerance when it came to expressing her pro-life views.
Funny enough, there was no mention that I heard on Irish media of this mass event or of the other March For Life that attracted thousands last weekend to a blizzard-torn Washington.
Pick of the Week
Mass
RTĖ One, Sunday, January 31, 11am
Bishop Brendan Kelly of Achonry celebrates Mass for Catholic Schools Week, with choir from St Pius Girls N.S., Terenure, Dublin. Music director is Bernard Sexton and conductor Berni Gunning.
In concert: Evensong at King’s College
EWTN, Monday, February 1, 6am
The world famous Chapel Choir from King’s College in Cambridge, England, sings Evensong.
The Leap of Faith
RTĖ Radio 1, Friday, February 5, 10am
Michael Comyn presents a programme of regular updates from across the world’s faiths and from those that hold them.