Abortion in the Media

Pro-Life groups in the UK have condemned the airing of TV commercials for abortionist group Marie Stopes in Britain, describing them as ‘grotesque’ and ‘misleading’.

According to LifeSiteNews, pro life groups say that the advertisements cover up the dangers of abortion and “trivialize” the taking of human life. Marie Stopes, one of the world’s largest international abortionist groups that receives an estimated £30 million a year from the UK National Health Service, claimed that the ads were needed to “inform” women and help them “confront the taboo” surrounding abortion.

However, the UK charity LIFE said that despite the claims by Marie Stopes, the ads have nothing to do with women’s health and they withhold crucial information from women about the dangers of abortion. LIFE spokesman Michaela Aston said, “Let’s be absolutely clear - abortion has nothing to do with sexual health. In fact, abortion is more likely to damage a woman's sexual health.”

Ms Aston told The Guardian "I can only express utter disbelief that this is being allowed, given the opposition to abortion advertising expressed during the recent public consultation. To allow abortion providers to advertise on TV, as though they were no different from car companies or detergent manufacturers, is grotesque," she said.

 “There is a growing body of scientific evidence supporting LIFE's forty years' experience of counselling women after abortion, that the procedure can cause lasting and sometimes severe psychological ill-effects,” Aston told LSN.

“Marie Stopes are not up-front about this. They sell abortion as a quick-fix solution to crisis pregnancy and largely deny that it has any adverse consequences. Marie Stopes are not empowering women to make ‘confident, informed decisions,’ as they claim, because they are not giving women all the facts.”

LIFE also questioned the transparency of the ASA’s consultation process about abortions ads: “Why did they go ahead with a public consultation period when they knew all along about the ‘charity loophole’? …Who made this discovery and when? And why weren't we informed about it during the consultation period?”

An announcement last year that the ASA was considering approving the advertising of abortion on TV was met with 40,000 complaints against the proposal, according to LifeSiteNews. In response, BCAP deferred a decision as to whether to allow the ads.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said it will be taking advice as to the legality of the ads.

“By suggesting that abortion is yet another consumer choice, it trivialises human life and completely contravenes the spirit of the 1967 Abortion Act, which was supposed to allow for a small number of legal abortions in a limited number of hard cases, but has been twisted and distorted to allow for mass abortion on demand,” SPUC’s Anthony Ozimic said.

The ads, he said, “trivialise abortion. It is an insult to the hundreds of women hurt by abortion every day. Such ads are offensive and will mislead viewers about the reality of abortion.”

The Marie Stopes ad the ads, which will run from May 24 to the end of June on BBC Channel 4, does not use the word “abortion,” but asks “Are you late?” and directs pregnant woman to Marie Stopes International's 24-hour helpline. The group in their press release boasts that of the 195,296 abortions carried out in England and Wales in 2008, one in three were at Marie Stopes facilities.

An online petition is being circulated that allows the public to protest and request that permission to air the ads be rescinded. 

The tragic news that almost one late-term abortion is performed every single day in Victoria and that many of these abortions are carried out on healthy babies for “psycho-social” reasons must cause a rethink on Victoria’s abortion policies, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said today.

ACL Victorian Director Rob Ward said that late-term abortion figures from the 2007 annual report of the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity paint a picture of ‘unspeakable cruelty’.

“If it is not enough that Victoria’s abortion laws have allowed 345 late-term babies to be killed in 2007, then surely the fact that 54 of them were still alive after the procedure and then left to die should cause the Government to take stock,” Mr Ward said.

“The situation is even more horrendous when you consider that the 2007 figures reflect the situation before abortion was decriminalised in Victoria in October 2008.

“There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the number of late-term abortions being carried out in Victoria has increased significantly since the State’s open-slather abortion laws were passed.”

Mr Ward said that it is time for the Government to come clean and release all the information it has about the effects of its abortion legislation – including more recent statistics about late-term abortions.

“To its shame, Victoria appears to be solidifying its reputation as the abortion capital of Australia. There is an urgent need for the Government to review its abortion policies and we call upon them to do this immediately,” Mr Ward said.

“Every abortion is a tragedy and Christians will not remain silent on this issue, especially while babies old enought to survive outside the womb are being aborted regularly in our State."

On May 4, Life Network Australia President, Sonja Couroupis, spoke on national Christian radio. In an interview by the Australian Christian Lobby, Sonja commented on the recent case in Italy where a baby boy was left to die after a botched late term abortion. She exposes Australia's terrible track record of live births following abortion. She also mentions the increase in late term abortions in Victoria following the passing of legislation in 2008 which allows for abortion on demand in that State. Have a listen to the interview on the ACL website (May 4, starts at about 8:30 minutes).

From the Australian Christian Lobby

Tragic news from Italy that a baby boy who survived a botched abortion at 22 weeks and was simply wrapped in cloth and left to die by Italian doctors has again highlighted the extreme cruelty of late-abortion practices.

 Media reports indicate that the baby was discovered alive last Saturday - 20 hours after the botched termination - when a hospital chaplain went to pray beside the body and noticed him moving. The baby died in intensive care on Monday, with Italian police launching a homicide investigation as Italy’s laws state that doctors have an obligation to try to preserve the life of a child if it survives a termination.

The Italian report – and police action – further expose the distressingly cruel nature of abortion practices which occur legally and no doubt far more frequently in Australia, without repercussions for those involved.

In late 2008 a Senate committee looking into the Medicare funding of second trimester/late term abortions was given shocking evidence of babies being born alive after botched abortions and left to die, as well as the foetal pain experienced during abortions. For example, statistics from Victoria show that 47 of the 309 post-20 week abortions performed in 2005 resulted in the delivery of a live born child who was then left to die.

And yet despite these revelations nothing has been done to help these children and our abortion laws are only becoming more permissive.

However, in some heartening news from the US, politicians in the US state of Oklahoma have voted to pass two abortion Bills that will require women to listen to a detailed description of the foetus and view the ultrasound image prior to terminating a pregnancy.

Doctors will also be permitted to withhold test results showing foetal defects and will be protected from ‘wrongful birth’ malpractice lawsuits brought by parents who would have aborted a foetus had they been informed about its genetic or other defects.