Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
Michael Freeman / TheJournal.ie
# Abortion
Anti-abortion billboards 'do not speak for majority of women'
A high profile anti-abortion campaign has been strongly criticised by a pro-choice group.
A PRO-CHOICE GROUP has said that anti-abortion billboards erected in recent weeks do not speak for the majority of women who have undergone the procedure.
A spokesperson for Choice Ireland said the group had received “angry and offended” emails from a number of women over the billboard campaign.
The boards urge women with crisis pregnancies to seek other options, with the slogan ”Abortion tears her life apart”. It states that there is “always a better answer”.
Stephanie Lord, spokesperson for Choice Ireland, said the message did not represent the views of most women who have had abortions.
The evidence consistently shows that the majority of women who have abortions believe they made the right decision in their individual circumstances. According to the recent Crisis Pregnancy Agency report, 87 per cent of women with crisis pregnancies who opted for abortion retrospectively assessed this as the ‘right outcome’.
Lord suggested that the boards were misrepresenting the mission of the organisation behind them, the Life Institute.
“If their concern for women was genuine they would not spend the large costs of these billboards on trying to make women feel bad about the choices they have made,” Lord said.
The Life Institute describes itself as “a leading producer of research on pro-life issues” with supporters throughout the country. The billboard campaign was officially launched earlier this month.
Read: Fewer women travelling to the UK for abortion services>
