The French media regulator has fined the conservative channel CNews €100,000 for, during a Catholic programme, saying that abortion is the world’s leading cause of death. The episode reveals the extent to which the debate on abortion is deadlocked in France.
In February 2024, presenter Aymeric Pourbaix, during the Catholic programme “En quête d’esprit,” broadcast every Sunday on the conservative channel CNews, showed an infographic on the causes of death, ranking abortion as the leading cause, with 73 million deaths each year worldwide. That translates to 52% of annual deaths, far ahead of cancer (10 million) and smoking (6.2 million).
The journalist’s comments sparked a wave of indignation in the mainstream press, on the grounds that abortion cannot be considered a “cause of death” because the foetus should not be considered a living being.
Violent criticism was levelled at the CNews channel, owned by Catholic businessman Vincent Bolloré, prompting an investigation into the channel in the following weeks. The channel was accused of being dangerous and of broadcasting biased information—in other words, contrary to the canons of progressive thought. The alleged scandalous nature of the comments made by Pourbaix justified, according to the Minister Delegate for Health at the time, the inclusion of the right to abortion in the French constitution, which was achieved a few months later.
The violence of the attacks forced the channel to backtrack and apologise for what was presented as a handling ‘error’: the computer graphics should never have been broadcast on screen. On X, the channel was even asked to apologise “for the people who may have been hurt by this infographic.”
After several months of proceedings, the French media regulatory authority Arcom has fined CNews €100,000 for this episode. According to Arcom, the broadcaster failed in its “obligation of honesty and rigour in the presentation and processing of information.”
In the weekly magazine Valeurs Actuelles, Jean-Marie Le Méné, head of the Fondation Jérôme Lejeune, denounced the totalitarian nature of this decision, which proves the denial of reality that surrounds the practice of abortion in France:
Arcom writes: “Abortion cannot be presented as a cause of death.” Equating an aborted child with a dead person would make abortion a homicidal act. So that abortion can be carried out with a clear conscience, it is forbidden to say that abortion takes away life. Otherwise the keystone of the system collapses. But who believes this fiction?
He adds: “Abortion, the leading cause of death in the world, is unfortunately a fact, not an opinion.”
CNews and C8—also owned by Vincent Bolloré—are the only channels ever to have been subject to financial penalties in France.
