Irish Block Paper Over Abortion Ad
Ireland, already in an uproar over abortion, became further embroiled Thursday after a newspaper distributor withheld copies of The Guardian because it carried an ad for an abortion clinic.
The distributor, Eason and Son, decided to hold at a warehouse 2,000 copies flown in from Manchester, England, after police were sent to Dublin Airport.
Irish law forbids advertisements for abortion centers.
Alan Shatter, spokesman for the opposition Fine Gael Party, said the incident will make Ireland “the laughingstock of Europe.”
The papers included a full-page ad for the Marie Stopes Health Clinics and seven of its offices in Britain.
Prionsias de Rossa, leader of the Democratic Left opposition party, told the Dail, Ireland’s Parliament, “We are living in an infantile theocracy, not in a democracy at all.” He called it “a ridiculous situation.”
Ireland’s abortion law is the most rigid in Europe. It allows only a “morning-after” pill that terminates pregnancies in the first 72 hours. About 4,000 women travel from Ireland to Britain for abortions every year.
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