Unplanned, a film adaptation of a memoir by Abby Johnson, a former clinic director for Planned Parenthood in Texas, who became a pro-life activist after seeing a distressing abortion, has finally secured a theatrical cinema release in Ireland.

The $6m (€5.5m) film has grossed almost $20m in the US and Canada since April. According to Paul Ward, co-owner of Irish Multiplex Cinemas, Unplanned will be shown from Friday at its four Dublin theatres, including the Savoy, and in Omagh, Co Tyrone. “We have been asked by our patrons to screen it,” he said.

The pro-abortion lobby is up in arms.

Peter Boylan, a retired obstetrician and gynaecologist, has contested a claim in the film that a 13-week-old foetus has the physiological capacity to feel pain. “Certainly not at 13 — the neural pathways aren’t developed enough,” he said. “It’s at 20-plus weeks.”

He would say that wouldn’t, he?

If those who dispute the accuracy of this film want to be taken seriously they should get someone with more credibility than arch-abortion advocate Peter Boylan to do so.