Count on the British Broadcasting Corporation to come though, yet again, for the Abortion Industry. Just when there’s been renewed skepticism about how abortion clinics, which are almost completely unregulated, adhere even to the most minimal of regulations, the BBC is “making broadcast history.”
The BBC is “producing a two-hour show live from an abortion clinic in which it hopes to air the views of patients and staff working in a sector that has been surrounded in renewed controversy,” writes the newspaper The Independent. But whether its decision to “tackle the taboo” next month redounds to the advantage of abortion advocates may not be the slam dunk the BBC clearly intends it to be.
While the exact clinic is yet to be named, BBC Radio 5 presenter Victoria Derbyshire will “carry out interviews with women who are undergoing pregnancy terminations [abortions], as well as doctors [abortionists], counsellors and junior members of the clinic’s staff,” according to Ian Burrell.
Derbyshire told Burrell the goal is not to evaluate the pro and con views on abortion– “The pro and anti view is well known,” she told the Independent– “Our point on that day is to bring new insights into areas of British life which is taboo.”
Let’s speculate. First of all, why this unprecedented step? The abortion industry feels “under siege,” Burrell writes, because of investigations in which
“The Daily Telegraph accompanied pregnant women into clinics and filmed doctors agreeing to terminations after they were told the mother did not want the baby because of its gender. Derbyshire said the BBC’s decision to make the programme was linked to the controversy and the claims that, although the sector is regulated, ‘some people weren’t following those rules’. She said: ‘[The clinics] were all very nervous because of that undercover investigation.’”
Doubtless this clinic will follow this “rule.” How about the other reason the abortion trade is in hot water that is not even mentioned?
Abortionists do not have to see a woman seeking an abortion in person, but they must certify that they are aware of her circumstances and why she wants to go ahead with the abortion. An undercover investigation by the London Telegraph revealing that doctors at many British abortion clinics were routinely falsifying their paperwork. The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, was outraged and vowed to crack down on clinics which were operating outside the law.
Inspections undertaken by the Care Quality Commission discovered that as many as a fifth of clinics were pre-signing consent forms for the abortionists. This came just weeks after another newspaper investigation that found that some abortionists were routinely approving illegal sex-selective abortion.
No doubt the unnamed abortion clinic will have followed this rule as well.
Second, what is “taboo”? Actually going into the abortion clinic where we no doubt will be given a hard-hitting investigation of why women are aborting. Well, actually not. This is part of the larger agenda of further desensitizing an already largely desensitized public. Come on in! Abortion is no big deal, so stop with all those “investigations.”
Third, and finally, the program will also avoid the grim truth about the real status of abortion in Great Britain. For example, that there has been a rise in “selective abortions”—instances where a woman is carrying more than one baby and one (or more) are aborted.
Or, for example, that under its 1967 Abortion Act, abortion on “social grounds” is legal through 24 weeks but (under “Ground E”) is legal up until birth if there is a substantial risk of “serious” physical or mental abnormality. And that under that elastic definition babies are aborted because they have a cleft palate!
We can hope that the public sees through this PR stunt to focus on what matters: the deaths of unborn babies.
Tip of the Hat goes to Jill Stanek.
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
