Please continue to lobby government to overrule abortion ads decision

As I blogged on 26 January, the government should use its powers to stop TV advertising by commercial abortion centres. Please continue to lobby the government to make this happen. Please write to your Member of Parliament (MP), asking him/her to write to Mr Hunt on your behalf, reminding Mr Hunt of his powers in relation to Ofcom, and urging Mr Hunt to use those powers to block all advertisements by abortion centres. You can write to your MP at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. If you’re not sure of your MP’s name, please visit http://www.spuc.org.uk/mps (where you can also send an electronic message to your MP). Please copy or forward any replies you receive from MPs to SPUC’s political department, either at SPUC HQ or by email to political@spuc.org.uk

Below are eight bullet-points you can use in your communication to your MP.

Why Jeremy Hunt must overrule the Advertising Standards Authority’s decision to allow abortion advertising on TV, and deter the likes of Marie Stopes from peddling its deadly trade:

1. As well as charging for private abortions, abortion providers like Marie Stopes benefits from lucrative NHS contracts so can afford to advertise on TV, while pro-life groups can’t.
2. Marie Stopes International is a killing machine which is spreading abortion to the world’s poorest nations. In 2008, supported by funds from the UK government, they performed around 600,000 abortions overseas.
3. Marie Stopes has a vested interest in more abortion. It carries out 65,000 abortions a year in Britain—mostly funded by the NHS—to the tune of £25 million.
4. Advertising abortion on TV sends a message to young people that killing an unborn child is a reasonable solution to human problems. It isn’t.
5. When women and girls go to Marie Stopes they are not told the true nature of abortion and are systematically directed towards choosing abortion.
6. The Advertising Standards Authority cannot be trusted to give unbiased and impartial judgements. Amazingly, the ASA fails to accept that Marie Stopes is really advertising abortion. They say its TV advert merely advertises ‘pregnancy advice’, not abortion.
7. 4,600 concerned individuals sent letters and postcards of protest to the ASA before and after the Marie Stopes advert was broadcast. Another 29,000 people have signed SPUC’s petition to the prime minister seeking a ban on TV ads.
8. Unelected quangos are sanctioning the deaths of unborn children, while the views of the general public are ignored.

You can read a more detailed briefing about abortion advertising on my blog of 26 January.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy