Ad ruling helps us to counter damaging pro-abortion myths

We are delighted that our estimate has been validated and the complaints rejected.

Both Lives Matter launched in January with a report stating that 100,000 people are alive today in Northern Ireland because the 1967 Abortion Act was not enacted here.

Despite the fact that a respected independent economist had said our figure was a “cautious and plausible estimate, fourteen complainants contacted the ASA about two billboards, one in Belfast and one in Derry/Londonderry.

The billboards said “100,000 PEOPLE ARE ALIVE TODAY BECAUSE OF OUR LAWS ON ABORTION. Why change that?”. The complainants alleged that our advert was “inaccurate, misleading and offensive”.

We were contacted by the ASA at the start of February and now after much to-ing and fro-ing between us and the ASA and following advice from their appointed independent expert they say, “on balance we concluded that the evidence indicated that there was a reasonable probability that around 100,000 people were alive today who would otherwise have been aborted had it been legal to do so.”

So what? Why does this matter?

Well our assertion that Northern Ireland’s abortion law saves lives has been robustly upheld. The ruling acknowledges that law shapes culture. It’s not difficult to understand that the more available abortion is, the more normal it becomes and therefore the more it happens.

Ultimately the victory in this ruling is not about the individuals and organisations who make up Both Lives Matter though, it’s about the 100,000 people who have lived, loved and contributed to our society in the past 50 years. That’s the equivalent of 100 primary school classes every year or Windsor park filled five times over.

This ruling helps to challenge some unhelpful pro-abortion rhetoric which has developed such as the allegation that limited access to abortion makes no difference to the number of abortions. The Advertising Standard Authority’s independent expert has shown that claim to be false. Because of our law, and because of our life-affirming culture, abortion rates in NI are approximately seven times less than the rest of GB.

The allegation that restricting access to abortions makes them less safe can also be refuted, in the context of Northern Ireland, with reference to publicly available government health statistics on maternal health and mortality rates.

We have said many times that because of this unique context we as a society are also more accepting of fetal diagnosis of disability.

In Northern Ireland unlike other parts of GB, abortion is not available up to birth on the grounds of disability. In England & Wales over 90 per cent of babies diagnosed in utero with Downs are aborted; we cannot, and therefore do not, routinely abort on this basis.

The majority of people who want to offer choice to women do so out of a desire to show compassion and not to judge. However it is not uncompassionate or judgmental to advocate for the value, dignity and worth of both women and children. We challenge the dangerous myth that progress and equality for women is measured by abortion without limits.

Whatever your views on abortion, when faced with 8 million abortions in GB since 1967, we in Northern Ireland have 100,000 reasons to reflect on where we are going as a community and why it would be wise not to follow suit.

Both Lives Matter was formed to tell a different story, to reframe the narrative and rehumanise the conversation around abortion and pregnancy crisis.

Today we celebrate the 100,000 and we ask you to join us. This is good news, go tell someone about it.”

• Dawn McAvoy is one of the founders of Both Lives Matter