Response to ‘Hitler Image Criticism’
On Thursday 16th February 2017, twenty Precious Life volunteers picketed the Alliance Party constituency office on the Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast. This was in protest against the party’s support for the killing of unborn children with life-limiting disabilities and its former leader David Ford’s proposals to change the law to allow abortion in such cases.
Precious Life’s use of an image of Adolf Hitler alongside an image of the former Alliance leader David Ford on one of its posters during the picket sparked outrage. Human rights activist Gary Spedding reported Bernadette Smyth to the police and the Community Security Trust, claiming that use of such an image “trivialise[d] the Nazi Holocaust” and “retraumatise[d] Jewish people and communities.”
In response, Bernadette Smyth, the director of Precious Life, explained why the image was used:
“The purpose of our poster was to draw people’s attention to the disturbing parallels between the Aktion T4 programme, the post-war designated name of the Nazi “euthanasia” programme which targeted, for systematic killing, disabled people and the former Alliance leader’s Private Member’s Bill which seeks to legalise abortion of unborn babies with life-limiting conditions right up to the moment of birth.
“To correct Gary Spedding, our reference to Hitler had nothing to do with the Holocaust. The Aktion T4 killing programme was Nazi Germany’s first programme of mass murder. It predated the Holocaust by approximately two years. In no way did our poster trivialise the Holocaust or seek to “retraumatise” Jewish people. The poster was simply to highlight a policy that was enforced ‘back then’ and a policy that is being proposed as a parental choice today and the disturbing parallels between those policies.
“In October 1939, Hitler signed a euthanasia decree, backdated to September 1939, issuing orders that certain doctors be commissioned to grant a “mercy death” to patients “considered incurable” by medical examination.
“David Ford’s Bill is seeking to allow abortion of unborn babies diagnosed with a condition ‘likely to result in the death’ of the unborn child either before birth or during birth. The word ‘likely’ sets the bar so low that it gives doctors free rein.
“According to David Ford, his proposal for legalised abortion is ‘not about disability’ but solely targeted towards unborn babies with ‘no prospect of life’. But research has shown that babies with anencephaly have lived up to 5 days and even 28 days.(1) In a recent survey of 332 families in trisomy support groups, of the 216 children who had full Trisomy 18 or 13, 40% lived longer than a year and 21% lived at least 5 years.(2) But if David Ford’s Bill is made law, if a child is born alive, no treatment will be offered to improve chances of survival. What ‘no prospect of life’ really means is that the child’s life is not worth fighting for.
“The common principle behind the Aktion T4 programme and the current proposal for legalised abortion of unborn babies with life-limiting conditions in Northern Ireland is eugenic discrimination – that certain human beings, because of a ‘defective’ quality or disability, are not worth protecting.
“Supporters of changing the law to allow abortion in the above cases would claim that allowing abortion in such cases is nothing like the Nazi eugenics killing programme. But eugenic discrimination remains just that, whether it is enforced by the state or chosen by a parent.”
The pro-life movement throughout the world has been exposing the link between eugenics and abortion for years. It may be difficult for those who accept the killing of unborn children to accept such a disturbing connection, but nevertheless, it is the truth and the truth must be spoken, no matter now unpopular or uncomfortable it may be to hear.
Precious Life has been actively defending unborn babies for twenty years. The vitriolic criticism waged against our use of the Hitler image is really an attack on us as the leading pro-life group in Northern Ireland, the group which has been saving unborn babies and fiercely defending our pro-life laws for twenty nears. We get results, and that is why many try to undermine our credibility. Those who condemned our use of the Hitler image should condemn the Alliance Party and the other political parties that are calling for the killing of unborn babies with life-limiting conditions.
Notes:
(1) Jaquier M, Klein A and Boltshauser E, 'Spontaneous Pregnancy Outcome after Prenatal Diagnosis of Anencephaly' (2006) 113(8) British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 951.
(2) Janvier A, Farlow B, Wilfond BS, ‘The Experience of Families with Children with Trisomy 13 and 18 in Social Networks’ (2012) 130(2) Pediatrics 130(2) 293.