- The Iona Institute - https://ionainstitute.ie -

Pro-abortion picket at Unplanned screenings

Pro-choice groups in Galway [1] and Derry [2] picketed a screening of Unplanned, a pro-life film that depicts the story of one woman who left the abortion industry after witnessing an ultra-sound guided abortion.

The protest in Salthill on Friday followed the release of Unplanned in 18 Omniplex cinemas across Ireland at the weekend and was attended by Green Party councillors Pauline O’Reilly and Martina O’Connor.

Cllr. O’Reilly [3] had written to Omniplex describing the film as ‘right wing propaganda’ and requested  that they ‘not continue to screen the film’.

The official Aontu twitter account reacted with scorn to the politically motivated ‘censorship’: ‘From burning books to closing down films they don’t agree with. This is new liberal Ireland in 2019. As uniform, rigid and intolerant as it ever was. [4] Censorship is alive and well as 14 thugs seek to close down a screening of “Unplanned”.’

The Pro-Life Campaign said the protest was bizarre and intolerant [5].

Elsewhere, pro-abortion groups admitted they lobbied cinemas to not show the film. Naomi Connor, from Northern Ireland’s Alliance For Choice, said “Our understanding is that most cinemas were contacted [by pro-choice activists] and chose not to screen the film. We can’t say the film should be censored — that’s not our role — but we would ask those cinemas [that] choose to screen it to reflect on the harm it is doing women.