Upcoming RTÉ programme set to once again ignore massive scandals related to new abortion law

Next Monday, “RTÉ Investigates” is set to air a programme that claims Ireland’s abortion law is not pervasive enough despite the abortion rate having skyrocketed since 2019. The official promo for the programme also indicates it will feature an “undercover” sting operation into the counselling practices of certain groups that don’t support abortion. 

For the past fifteen years or more, the public has been bombarded with the same Prime Time programmes on RTÉ, all depicting abortion in a one-sided way that favours the pro-abortion side and demonises pro-lifers through highly questionable editorial decisions over what to present and withhold from the public. 

Thankfully, in recent times, the public has become much more alert to RTÉ’s dubious editorial practices. Five years into the new abortion regime, you’d think RTÉ would start putting some hard questions to the proponents of the new law and encourage debate on the many horrifying things that have happened under the new law that senior politicians promised would never happen. Instead, it looks like we’re going to be presented with more of the same from RTÉ, which is shocking beyond words.

It’s doubtful Monday’s programme will even touch on the real issues related to abortion in Ireland. Since 2020, abortion has been operated by telemedicine, despite promises made in 2018 including by then-Minister for Health Simon Harris that abortion would not be carried out via telemedicine. This policy reversal has proven disastrous. In October 2022, it was reported that a child had been locked in a room and forced to take abortion pills – which was enabled by telemedicine, which forgoes the requirement that a woman seeking an abortion must be first examined by a doctor. How come RTÉ never followed up on this awful story and demanded answers from the Government and whether other similar cases have arisen under the new law?

The HSE said in a letter replying to a parliamentary question, that an in-person examination heightens the likelihood of detecting coercion or domestic abuse. With telemedicine, the most vulnerable women are slipping through the cracks. In addition, the policy has seen significant risks to the physical health of women. An article published in the Irish Medical Journal on 21st March detailed how a woman in Limerick nearly died following an abortion due to the presence of an undetected ectopic pregnancy. This wouldn’t have occurred if she had been given an ultrasound, but with telemedicine there isn’t even a requirement to speak face-to-face with a doctor before receiving a medical abortion. RTÉ has held no Prime Time programmes on this scandal and there’s no indication it will feature on Monday’s programme. 

If RTÉ seriously wants to undertake an investigation into abortion in Ireland, they could start by examining claims made in a paper published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (2020) detailing how under Ireland’s new abortion law babies are sometimes born alive after botched abortions and left to die unaided. Some of the doctors performing these abortions talk about the “internal conflict” they experience and how ending the lives of unborn babies can be “brutal”, “awful” and “emotionally difficult”. The study quotes one doctor referring to what they do as “stabbing the baby in the heart.” Another doctor interviewed for the study said: “I remember getting sick out in the corridors afterwards because I thought it (feticide) was such an awful procedure and so dreadful.”

Any investigation into abortion in Ireland must grapple with the reality that since the introduction of legislation in 2019, the abortion rate has risen significantly each year. Indications suggest that last year there were over 10,000 abortions – the highest number on record. RTÉ should be questioning how and why the numbers have reached such a devastating scale, which should prompt questions about the practices and lack of effectiveness of the state-backed My Options phone line. Yet instead of asking these crucial questions, RTÉ appears obsessed with trying to depict the pro-life side in the most negative light possible and then rushing to the National Women’s Council for their reaction, affording this totally unrepresentative taxpayer-funded group another opportunity to push for a more extreme abortion law. It’s no wonder that people increasingly have very little respect for RTÉ and are questioning the value of paying for a TV licence when these are the types of programmes which are being produced using taxpayers’ money.