Journalist Fiona Looney has said that "from the moment of conception a foetus is a human being" and that "terminating the life of a baby in the womb is the same as going out and shooting someone in the street." The popular columnist was taking part in a panel discussion on TV3 featuring the ABC case before the European Court of Human Rights, and spoke strongly in defence of the right to life of the unborn child. She said she was “completely pro-life, in every circumstance” and also expressed opposition to the death penalty and euthanasia.

Ms Looney said that she had “got a lot of personal abuse” for making her pro-life views known. Another journalist on the programme, Sineád Ryan, said that she had been “pro-choice” until she had seen the scan of her first child in utero.

However, Ms Ryan and most of the other guests confused ethical medical treatments with abortion – citing ectopic pregnancy, for example, as a reason for abortion legislation when, in reality, ectopic pregnancy, cancer of the uterus, and all other medical conditions arising during pregnancy can be fully treated in Ireland since they do not deliberately attack the unborn child.

It was noted that of the four guests on the panel, the two younger women were more pro-life, indicative perhaps of the growing knowledge of the humanity of the unborn child.

One caller into the show said that she deeply regretted her abortion and that the abortion industry treated women like cattle. Other described abortion as the holocaust of our time.