Pro-life advocates are celebrating a victory after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the UK ruled that a pro-life billboard in Northern Ireland can remain.
Several complaints had been filed by individuals who alleged that the claim made by the billboard could not be substantiated.
The billboard reads: “100,000 people are alive today because of our laws on abortion. Why change that?”
Abortion is only permitted in Northern Ireland in extreme circumstances; primarily only if the life of the mother is in danger. Northern Ireland is also the only UK country not to have legalized abortion in the 1967 Abortion Act. The billboard champions Northern Ireland’s restrictions on abortion, celebrating the lives that have been saved.
Despite the complaints, the ASA 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. Because we considered that readers would understand the figure to represent an estimate, we concluded that the claim was unlikely to materially mislead readers.”
The pro-life victory has led other UK countries to question the morality of the 1967 law.
“Today's ruling presents those of us who live in Great Britain with a very awkward question,” said Nola Leach, the chief executive of Christian Action Research Education.
“If 100,000 people are alive in Northern Ireland today who would not be if the 1967 Act had applied in the province, what would the figures look like across England, Scotland and Wales? In a few months it is the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act in 1967: today's news from Northern Ireland requires us all to stop and think on the effect this Act has had on our society.”
Photo courtesy: Flickr.com
Publication date: August 2, 2017