Anti-abortion activist shut down by court starts new site 24 hours later
Pro-lifer with ‘no computer skills and zero income’ won’t say how service is funded except ‘the Lord provides’
A PRO-LIFE activist – whose abortion information website has been shut down because it had a similar name to one run by the HSE – insists he has ‘zero income’ and no computer skills.
Within 24 hours of being ordered by the High Court to take down his controversial website, Eamonn Murphy registered a new domain name for a replacement site that will be fully operational tomorrow.
He also admitted that non-medically qualified people are being trained so they can carry out ultrasound scans on pregnant women seeking advice at his Dublin-based anti-abortion counselling service.
Judge Leonie Reynolds ordered Mr Murphy on Friday to close down his controversial www.myoptions.website.
But yesterday morning he registered a new website name www.myabortionchoices.com with a California-based hosting site to replace the previous one.
Even though the High Court judge threatened Mr Murphy with imprisonment if he did not comply with her court order, the pro-life activist insisted last night that he has not broken the law by setting up a replacement website.
‘The judge’s order was to do with www.myoptions... we obey the law always,’ said Mr Murphy who is offering financial assistance to women in a bid to persuade them not to have abortions.
‘We are offering to help women in America, Europe and in any Spanish speaking countries... we’re just doing English and Spanish [at the moment]. Spanish is the second largest language in America... they have more children.
‘The domain name was registered at 11 o’clock and the site is being loaded. I hope to have it running on Monday.’
He later added: ‘I’m not a computer expert. The person who has been helping me, I’m asking him to do what is digitally required.’
When asked why he set up a replacement site within 24 hours of being threatened with jail if he continued to operate a site that had a name similar to the website managed by the HSE, Mr Murphy said: ‘We want to help women in crisis pregnancies and to offer them financial assistance and accommodation. We don’t do everything ourselves. We are a contact group and we direct them to people who can help.’
The HSE’s www.myoptions.ie website offers women non-judgmental advice on how to handle an unplanned pregnancy and Mr Murphy registered his similar-sounding website just days after Health Minister Simon Harris announced the name of the HSE’s abortion information helpline service.
Since then there have been a number of reports of women contacting Mr Murphy’s service believing they were in touch with the independent information service provided by the HSE.
Meanwhile, Mr Murphy has refused to acknowledge that his former website may have confused women seeking advice about an unplanned pregnancy. He has also steadfastly denied describing women who had abortions as ‘disgusting murderers’.
During an urgent High Court injunction hearing last week, Helen Deely from the HSE’s sexual health crisis pregnancy unit said the national health authority received a phone call on January 22 from a woman who was ‘deeply upset’ after attending Mr Murphy’s counselling service for a scan.
The court was also told that since then the HSE’s helpline received a call from a woman claiming she was verbally abused on the phone by a man who had details about her recent abortion.
But this weekend Mr Murphy said: ‘In the 25 years of counselling I have never called a woman a disgusting murderer.
‘The person who performs the operation is the doctor. I would never have said that the woman had done it... the doctor does the
‘We don’t do everything, we’re a contact group’ ‘We are not involved in any medical diagnosis’
procedure.
‘I just can’t imagine using the word “disgusting”, it’s not a word I would use naturally.
‘Since January about 10 people have been trained [in how to do ultrasound scans]. There is no medical requirement... lay people can do it. Some of the people who have been trained would be medically qualified and some wouldn’t.
‘We are not involved in any medical diagnosis... the women come in and see the baby, they will hear the heartbeat. People can do the scanning after three, four, five sessions at training.’
But when asked who was providing this scanning training Mr Murphy claimed it was provided by a company that manufactured the machine. He refused to reveal the identity of this company and also refused to divulge how his counselling service is financed except to say: ‘The Lord provides. I have zero income.’