In the last hour a young woman in the Youth Defence office answered a call from a blocked number to hear a male caller scream: "I hope you get f**cking raped and have an abortion."

This vile threat seems to have been prompted by a false and malicious story appearing on Broadsheet.ie which claimed that a pro-life billboard had been parked opposite a Rape Crisis Centre.
 
On twitter, abortion campaigners claimed, usually using threats and expletives, that the billboard driver had been instructed to do so. There is no truth to either claim.
 
Firstly, Youth Defence did not instruct the mobile ad to park anywhere on Leeson Street or on any other street for that matter.
 
Secondly, the billboard driver had pulled in momentarily; and he was not parked opposite the Rape Crisis Centre as claimed by Broadsheet, something made very clear from the photo actually used by Broadsheet. Furthermore, he is completely unaware of what businesses / organisations are in Lesson Street, to say that he intentionally did this to offend anyone is scurilous. In fact, the company running these adverts were subjected to death threats, threats to their property and their drivers subjected to abusive and violent threats. This is what abortion advocates think of free speech.
 
Youth Defence spokeswoman, Clare Molloy, said that this was a "horrible and exploitative effort by abortion campaigners to use rape victims to attack the pro-life message".
 
"Rape is sadly an all-too common crime, and the same ratio of women in Youth Defence have suffered sexual assault as in the wider community. To try to accuse them of being insensitive to women in this situation is horrendous."
 
She added that abortion campaigners had shown themselves to be capable of the most sickening threats and violence, and that they hid behind false names on the internet to stir up hatred, rather than engage in debate.