BBC Abortion Bias Must End
BBC Woman’s Hour Holds Biased Discussion That Platforms Illegal, Unsafe, Abortion Activism
BBC Woman’s Hour Holds Biased Discussion That Platforms Illegal, Unsafe, Abortion Activism
On Monday 9th May, BBC Women’s Hour held an extremely one sided 10-minute discussion on Poland’s possibly changing abortion law. During this discussion, they interviewed two abortion lobbyists, Agnieszka Stupkiewicz-Turek, and Rebecca Gomperts of ‘Women on Waves’ but had no representatives from the right-to-life movement either in Poland or the UK.
The pro-life view on this important topic was not given the hearing it deserves and BBC Women’s Hour should be called up on it.
Women on Waves is a group that sends abortifacient drugs over the border from Germany to Poland using drones. This is done in complete violation of Poland’s sovereignty and laws as well as the democratic will of the Polish people. The hope of Women on Waves is that by doing this, women in Poland will be able to clandestinely take these drugs to induce an abortion.
Not only is there a total disregard for the lives of the unborn Polish citizens, this is done with apparent disregard for the health and safety of Polish women as well. A 2015 study on the outcome following self-medication with such drugs in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic research found that “unsupervised medical abortion can lead to increased maternal morbidity and mortality”.
- 62.5% of the patients were found to have incomplete abortion
- 22.5% had failed abortion
- 7.5% of patients had incomplete abortion with sepsis.
- Surgical evacuation was performed in 67.5% of the patients whereas 12.5% of the patients required surgical evacuation with blood transfusion.
In other words, there are very serious potential side effects of taking such drugs especially if done so without a physician.
The BBC’s bias in relation to abortion is already well known. Take for example, their official style guide which tells broadcasters to “[a]void pro-abortion, and use pro-choice instead. Campaigners favour a woman’s right to choose, rather than abortion itself. And use anti-abortion rather than pro-life…” So their bias in favour of abortion in this program comes as no surprise. That of course does not make it any more excusable.
Please sign this petition to BBC Women’s Hour asking for a fair presentation of all views on the abortion issue ensuring that the pro-life view is given a fair hearing.
http://www.righttolife.org.uk/news/action-alert-womens-hour-poland/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079m0gk
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/02/04/bbc-tells-journalists-say-ant...
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Abortion: Present both Sides of the Discussion
I am writing to express my disappointment and frustration at a heavily biased recent segment on Monday morning’s Women’s Hour (09/05) regarding proposed changes in abortion law in Poland.
There were two abortion lobbyists, and no one from the right to life movement. I’m sure that there are many capable English-speaking Polish pro-life workers who would have offered an important alternative perspective on this issue.
In addition to the shameless bias, Women’s Hour is complicit in Women on Waves dangerous practice of illegally encouraging women to self-administer abortion pills. A 2015 study by Nivedita and Shanthini in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research found that “unsupervised medical abortion can lead to increased maternal morbidity and mortality”.
These abortion lobbyists are careless in their endangerment of women’s lives, and have put their ideology and publicity stunts before the safety of pregnant mothers, not to mention the lives of their unborn children.
Such points presumably would have come across if it were not for the bias of the programme. The framing of the segment implied that the default position of women would be supportive of the Women on Waves campaign. This is certainly not the case in Poland nor indeed in the UK, where a ComRes Poll in 2014 showed that 92% of UK women believed that a patient requesting an abortion should always be seen in person by a qualified doctor.
I hope that this poor discussion was simply an oversight by Women’s Hour and the BBC and does not represent a more pernicious attempt by the BBC to affect a particular pro-abortion/choice narrative.
There is much diversity in women’s views on this matter and it is unfair for the BBC to only present one viewpoint for one group. I ask that this bias is addressed and in future, both sides are given a proper hearing.
Abortion: Present both Sides of the Discussion
I am writing to express my disappointment and frustration at a heavily biased recent segment on Monday morning’s Women’s Hour (09/05) regarding proposed changes in abortion law in Poland.
There were two abortion lobbyists, and no one from the right to life movement. I’m sure that there are many capable English-speaking Polish pro-life workers who would have offered an important alternative perspective on this issue.
In addition to the shameless bias, Women’s Hour is complicit in Women on Waves dangerous practice of illegally encouraging women to self-administer abortion pills. A 2015 study by Nivedita and Shanthini in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research found that “unsupervised medical abortion can lead to increased maternal morbidity and mortality”.
These abortion lobbyists are careless in their endangerment of women’s lives, and have put their ideology and publicity stunts before the safety of pregnant mothers, not to mention the lives of their unborn children.
Such points presumably would have come across if it were not for the bias of the programme. The framing of the segment implied that the default position of women would be supportive of the Women on Waves campaign. This is certainly not the case in Poland nor indeed in the UK, where a ComRes Poll in 2014 showed that 92% of UK women believed that a patient requesting an abortion should always be seen in person by a qualified doctor.
I hope that this poor discussion was simply an oversight by Women’s Hour and the BBC and does not represent a more pernicious attempt by the BBC to affect a particular pro-abortion/choice narrative.
There is much diversity in women’s views on this matter and it is unfair for the BBC to only present one viewpoint for one group. I ask that this bias is addressed and in future, both sides are given a proper hearing.
