Westminster, : The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has condemned the BBC for attacking the Catholic Church's promotion of sanctity of human life and responsible sexual behaviour.

Last Sunday BBC One's Panorama programme broadcast "Sex and the Holy City", which made unsubstantiated claims that the Catholic Church's prohibition of abortion and contraception is responsible for the deaths of women from unwanted pregnancies, for the spread of HIV and for the suffering of pregnant child rape victims.

Anthony Ozimic of SPUC commented: "Many people have already protested strongly to the BBC about the report's in-built bias. The 'investigation', which purported to be a serious documentary report, obviously had its anti-life 'findings' written before it started.

"The deaths of women caused by so-called 'safe legal abortion', as well as other health dangers associated with abortion such as breast cancer and sterility, were not even mentioned. The Church's alternatives to abortion, such as support for women in crisis pregnancies, adoption and provision of orphanages, were given little or no mention.

"The success of Uganda's abstinence and marital fidelity programme in massively cutting the HIV infection rate was ignored. None of the scientific evidence which disproves the claim that condoms are 100% effective against HIV transmission was cited. The Church was accused of 'peddling superstition and ignorance' by warning people that condoms are not infallible!

"Large families were presented as a cause of extreme poverty and the abandonment by the Church of its opposition to abortion and contraception as the solution. The Church's alternative to contraception, natural family planning (NFP), was quickly skimmed over.

"SPUC congratulates His Holiness Pope John Paul II for the 25 years of his pontificate, in which he has championed the true dignity of women against the anti-woman practices promoted by the BBC's allies, IPPF and UNFPA. SPUC also congratulates His Eminence Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, for his eloquent defence of the truth in the face of the BBC's baiting.

"It is abortion and the disease-spreading sexual irresponsibility fuelled by mass contraceptive provision that is the true culture of death in the developing world, not the Church's life-giving message of the true respect due to human reproduction and sexuality", concluded Mr Ozimic.