A new campaign has been launched by pro-life supporters in the Republic of Ireland to fight against a liberalisation of abortion law.
The Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution pledges to “defend and vindicate” the equal right to life of the unborn and the mother, “as far as practicable”.
But the Irish Government has been under increasing pressure from the media to hold a referendum on whether or not to repeal the amendment.
Excluded
Niamh Uí Bhriain from The Life Institute slammed the Irish media for its persistent pro-abortion bias.
“The media in Ireland are almost entirely supportive of abortion being legalised, and have gone into overdrive in the past three years, making a concerted effort to exclude the humanity of the baby from the debate”, she said.
She added that the HUMAN campaign was aiming to “refocus the debate” surrounding abortion in the Republic of Ireland.
‘Human beings’
Last month, the campaign released a video message which has already gathered over 100,000 views online.
The video, which was published on The Life Institute, explains that “we are all human beings and have been since our lives began”.
A spokeswoman from The Life Institute commented: “Everyone sees the incredible beauty and miracle of life in ultrasounds and scans these days, but a deliberate disconnect is being brought about by the media framing the debate to exclude preborn babies from the human rights that every human being is entitled to.
“This campaign brings people to consider some basic, logical facts – that if the baby is a human being, then that baby has the same rights as you and I”, concluding “we cannot deny that child their human right to life”.
Media bias
Last December, the Republic of Ireland’s publicly-funded broadcaster was issued with an official warning by broadcasting authorities for repeated pro-abortion bias on one of its flagship radio shows.
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) issued the warning to RTÉ, which receives funding from TV licence fee payers in the country.
The complaints were made against the Ray D’Arcy Show, which is one of the Republic of Ireland’s leading radio programmes.
In its decision, the BAI noted that this “was the third occasion on which complaints have been upheld” in relation to abortion coverage on the show.
‘Unfair and biased’
The most recent complaint concerned a June broadcast which was found to have failed to comply with the ‘fairness, objectivity and impartiality requirements’ of the Broadcasting Act 2009.
The BAI said it was their view that “listeners to the programme would have reasonably concluded that the presenter endorsed the views of his interviewee and was articulating a partisan position”.
During the show, presenter Ray D’Arcy said that having to “fight” the state to have an abortion in the Republic of Ireland was “horrific”.
Previously, complaints were made with the BAI that “the presenter promoted his personal view in respect of abortion” and that he was “completely unfair and biased” during an interview.