‘BBC cherry-picking data to promote abortion’

The BBC has been accused of suppressing ‘inconvenient’ polling results on abortion in its Abortion On Trial documentary last week.

Presented by Anne Robinson, the programme was criticised for its brazen pro-abortion bias, and for its call to decriminalise abortion.

During the show, Robinson used data from a poll commissioned by the BBC to imply public support for decriminalisation. However, she omitted figures which suggest the opposite.

Low support

Among figures quoted in the documentary was that 87 per cent of religious people support abortion in some circumstances.

Yet figures omitted from the programme show just 37 per cent of people believe abortion on any grounds is acceptable, and only 6 per cent support removing the time limit on abortion.

Robinson made an explicit call for the law to be changed to allow a woman to use pills to induce an abortion without medical approval, but the poll showed only 15 per cent of the public were in favour of such a move.

‘Cherry-picking’

Pro-life MP Fiona Bruce accused the BBC of tailoring the programme to support the agenda of pro-abortion advocates.

She said: “How can people be expected to have a fair and proper debate if facts are suppressed? It undermines credibility to cherry-pick polling results to reflect a lobby to which programme makers may be sympathetic.”

Maria Caulfield MP also expressed concern that not all sides of the argument were being presented, and said the BBC were ignoring “inconvenient” poll results.

‘Misleading’

The BBC denied the accusations, and also claimed that much work had gone into ensuring Abortion On Trial was fair and impartial. However, it was roundly criticised last week for its pro-abortion bias.

Chris Sugden, writing for Anglican Mainstream, said abortion was “celebrated and advocated” on the show, while Right To Life’s Peter D Williams branded it “misleading and unhelpful”.

He said: “This was a badly biased BBC programme, which showed little to no concern for a fair-minded presentation of even the most basic issues of abortion”.

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