One of the billboards which had generated complaints. Complaints made against pro-life billboards have been rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the billboards were found to be accurate.
Pro-life campaigners, Both Lives Matter (BLM), displayed two billboards claiming that ‘100,000 people are alive today because of our laws on abortion’ in Northern Ireland. There were 14 complaints made about the claim, saying that is was misleading and could not be substantiated, but this was overturned by the ASA.
A section of the report reads: “On balance, we concluded that the evidence indicated that there was a reasonable probability that around 100,000 people were alive in Northern Ireland today who would have otherwise been aborted had it been legal to do so.”
Dawn McAvoy of BLM said that they were cautious with their estimate of 100,000, saying that if they were to compare the figure with abortion rates in England and Wales it would be closer to 250,000.
She added that the passing of legislation on abortion in the UK, the 1967 Act, is the “single most important political decision in our lifetime” and that abortion has become “normalised” in England and Wales.
“We hope that this independent verification will lead to widespread acceptance of the fact that Northern Ireland’s different approach to abortion has made a very real difference – to at least 100,000 people.”