A French media company was fined and forced to apologise on air after a journalist referred to abortion as the world’s leading cause of death.

Presenter Aymeric Pourbaix of CNEWS made the statement during a Catholic program called “En quête d’esprit” [“In Search of the Spirit”].

The program showed a graph of causes of death that put abortion on top, with 73 million deaths each year worldwide. That constitutes 52% of annual deaths, far ahead of cancer (10 million) and smoking (6.2 million).

The French media regulatory authority Arcom imposed a fine of 100,000 euros and compelled CNEWS to apologise on the air. Arcom found that the network had failed its “obligation of honesty and rigor in the presentation and processing of information.” It declared that “Abortion cannot be presented as a cause of death.”