NRL News Today will run two posts today about how much blatantly anti-life and pro-media bias there has been of late in so many stories. That applies not just to the United States which we will discuss in our second of two stories but internationally.
Our first post is the latest in a lengthy series of stories we’ve written about how determined the Irish press is to present information about abortion in a manner that screams “false news” in order to introduce permissive abortion in Ireland.
The latest came out over the weekend in (where else?), the Irish Times. The backdrop is an informal recommendation last week that will be formalized this coming Wednesday: an end to the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution which holds that mothers and unborn children have equal rights with the authority on abortion transferred thence forward to the Parliament (known as the Oireachtas).
So the headline on a story posted Saturday in the Irish Times is “Large majority favours changing Constitution on abortion.” If you put one and one together—a recommendation to gut the Eighth Amendment and a “large majority” in favor of changing the Irish—might think that a lot of people are ready to eviscerate the Eighth Amendment, opening the door to essentially (if not in fact) abortion on demand.
But note: Pat Leahy, one of the two co-authors along with Sarah Bardon, although obviously pro-abortion, has been honest enough in his prior reporting to admit that the Irish public is nowhere near there.
He posted a story back in October in which Leahy analyzed what was then the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll. Instead of asking general questions, respondents were queried about which of two broad categories of changes they would favor and how they would vote on them if they were on the referendum—“general access versus limited access” was Leahy’s characterization. He wrote
Voters were asked if they were in favour of amending the Constitution “to allow for abortion in limited circumstances such as fatal foetal abnormality, rape or real risk to the life of the woman”; or amending the Constitution “to allow for abortion in all circumstances – abortion would be allowed up to the 22nd week of pregnancy.” They were also asked if they favoured “no referendum at all.”
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Only 24% were in favor of the “all circumstances.” A total of 57% supported “abortion in limited circumstances,” and another 10% wanted no referendum at all.
The media game is to position the current results –“A large majority of voters [62%] favours changing the Constitution to provide for greater access to abortion, the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll finds”—as (a) support for whatever is suggested by the parliamentary committee charged with making recommendations to the Irish government; and (b) “moderate” as compared to what could be the language for next year’s referendum.
The parliamentary committee is using as a springboard recommendations that came last year from a “Citizen’s Assembly.” Here’s how one newspaper summarized its recommendations:
The Assembly recommended that abortions should be allowed without restriction up to the 12th week of pregnancy and for “socioeconomic reasons” up to the 22nd week of pregnancy. In cases of fatal foetal abnormality, it recommended terminations be permitted during any period of the pregnancy.
In the Leahy/Bardon story, one possible recommendation is abortion on demand through the 12th week and a three day waiting period. Interesting, they add that after the three day wait, “the abortion pill [chemical abortions] would be provided thereafter.”
Even the most extreme proponents of chemical abortions ordinarily draw the line at 9 weeks.
We will keep you updated on the situation. There is no telling how wide-open the language that ultimately will be on the 2018 referendum will be. Pro-abortionists have spent an enormous amount of time and energy trying to tear down Ireland’s protective shield.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
