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BBC moves to calling premature babies foetuses

The BBC’s political editor for Northern Ireland has referred to the picture of a premature baby on a pro-life postcard as a foetus.

The insensitive comments were made live on BBC Newsline, by Mark Davenport, just hours before a law imposing Europe’s most extreme abortion legislation on the province came into force

He said, “when I came down from the Stormont Assembly I passed some security staff who were still sorting through boxes and boxes of postcards with pictures of a 27-week old foetus on them, and that came from pro-life campaigners who were determined that the law should not be changed.”

The postcards in question were printed by pro-life campaign group Both Lives Matter and feature a picture of a baby boy, called Paul, from Belfast born at 27 weeks and two days. 

They urged Members of Northern Ireland’s Legislative Assembly to reconvene Stormont by October 21, so that the extreme abortion regime, that came into force today, could be halted. 

Paul is now 24 years old but may not have survived if he was born today. As of Tuesday, abortion is now available for any reason, up to 28 weeks, legalising sex-selective and disability-selective abortion including abortion for Down’s syndrome, cleft lip and club foot.

In the build-up to a debate on the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill, the BBC drew attention to an amendment, that eventually brought Europe’s most extreme abortion regime to Ireland, calling it an exciting titbit

For a number of years the BBC’s ‘News Style Guide’ has required their journalists to ‘avoid pro-abortion, and use pro-choice instead’. When it comes to describing the pro-life position they advise journalists to ‘use anti-abortion rather than pro-life’.

The BBC has also been caught suppressing polling they commissioned for a documentary, called Abortion on Trial, which showed that there was no widespread support for changing the existing law.

Instead, in the documentary that aired, the BBC cherry-picked minority results from polling that supported what appeared to be a clear bias in the documentary towards removing the current legal restrictions and safeguards around abortion. 

The same documentary was also criticised for dropping a pregnant woman from their panel who had chosen not to abort her daughter who had Down’s syndrome.

Spokesperson for Right to Life UK, Catherine Robinson said: 

“This insensitive comment from the BBC’s political editor for Northern Ireland is just the latest in a long list of actions highlighting their institutional bias against the pro-life movement, and for the abortion lobby.”

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Dear reader,

Despite the Leadbeater assisted-suicide Bill passing its Third Reading on 20 June, it scraped through by just 23 votes (314-291) after enjoying a 55-vote majority at Second Reading. Had 12 more MPs switched sides, the Bill would be dead. It now limps into the Lords with a wafer-thin majority, where peers can amend, delay or reject it outright.

THE CHALLENGE

Dignity in Dying, My Death My Decision and Humanists UK have poured millions into pushing assisted suicide and will fight hard to stop the Lords overturning the Bill.

At the same time, the Antoniazzi abortion-up-to-birth amendment, passed by MPs in June, also heads to the Lords. If it becomes law, it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason – including sex-selective purposes – and at any point up to and during birth.

We will be up against the UK’s largest abortion providers, BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes), who are expected to push for even more extreme changes to our abortion laws in the Lords.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Thousands of vulnerable lives are now at stake. Battling these two threats is the biggest and most expensive effort in our history, and has drained our limited resources. To fight effectively on both fronts, we aim to raise £200,000 by midnight this Sunday (13 July 2025).

Every donation, large or small, will help protect lives, and UK taxpayers can add 25p to every £1 through Gift Aid at no extra cost.

Will you make a donation now to help protect vulnerable lives from these major threats?

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