The Minister for Justice has accused those who erected anti-abortion posters in his constituency which target him personally of using the tactics of “fundamentalist bully boys”.
Alan Shatter, who is a Fine Gael TD for Dublin South, said he was “appalled” to read the slogan “Every child matters except to Alan Shatter” and to see an “entirely inappropriate bloodied photograph” on the posters.
The posters were customised versions of Fine Gael’s children’s referendum campaign posters, which carried the slogan “Every child matters”.
The original image of a boy holding a teddy bear was covered over with a graphic image of a gloved hand holding what appear to be the legs of a bloodied foetus. The words “Stop abortion” was also added to the posters.
In a statement issued through the Department of Justice yesterday, Mr Shatter described the posters as “obscene and insensitive” and said those responsible were “apparently too cowardly to include their identity”.
He said: “The lack of humanity, insight and compassion of those responsible for these posters is starkly illustrated by their positioning adjacent to Wesley College school, close to where I live, and their reported positioning outside at least one creche in my constituency.”
Mr Shatter said it was regrettable “that a minority of individuals are now reverting to the insensitive and disgraceful tactics deployed by the fundamentalist bully boys who targeted both me and others in the early 1980s”.
Anti-abortion groups Youth Defence and the Life Institute said they had no knowledge about the origin of the posters.
