Abortion ignorance is not bliss

By , Friday, 21 May 2010, 2 Comments
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According to John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, the advertising of unplanned pregnancy and abortion advice will ‘further commercialise the killing of unborn children.’


 


His emotive comment was made last year, when a consultation on television advertising codes took place.


 


To the society’s horror, on Monday, the first UK television commercial for abortion services provided by Marie Stopes International will be broadcast at 10pm on Channel 4. The ‘Are You Late?’ campaign will run throughout June, though pro-life groups are taking advice on its legality.


 


These groups warn that advertisements by ‘abortion providers’ trivialise human life, putting abortion on a par with other ‘products’ such as detergents or car companies. They fear abortion will be seen as just another form of contraception, like condoms or the pill; or perhaps just ‘another consumer choice’ that is made lightly, with minimal thought.


 


That would, undoubtedly, be very wrong but it does (all but a tiny minority of) women an injustice to suggest that they would be influenced in this way.


 


 


By contrast, Marie Stopes International views its campaign as ‘confronting the taboo’; its advert doesn’t mention the word abortion, but points those facing an unplanned pregnancy to Marie Stopes’ 24-hour helpline. The campaign follows a study that found fewer than half (42 per cent) of UK adults knew where to go for specialist advice about an unplanned pregnancy, other than their GP. The organisation is allowed to advertise because it is a charity; so the term ‘commercialisation’ doesn’t really apply.


 


Nobody has seen the advert, so we cannot yet know whether its tone will offend the nation; if it is inappropriate, it will certainly need to be re-thought. But it should not be banned. Abortion is legal in this country and while the option exists, women should be informed that it exists and know where to seek unbiased advice.


 


Many young people are hard for health professionals to ’reach’; television is an effective way of reaching them. When it comes to sexual health messages, ignorance is not bliss, it is simply ignorance.

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  • Sohrab Panday

    whilst not being anti-abortion per se I am concerned that the advise groups like marie stopes give is incomplete and does not fulfill full and informed consent
    There is a bias or assumption towards helping a girl make the choice of having an abortion in my experience with no mention of the real and well descibed negtive effects an abortion can have on a lady.

  • Martin Gray

    This just goes to show how society has changed, for the worse, over the past few years. All the money spent on providing sex education, advice on contraception and avoiding unwanted pregnancy appears to have been somewhat wasted if it is now necessary to actually advertise any surgical procedure on the media of TV and radio.

    Think the same was true of the morning after pill and the ease in which it could be obtained. I don’t beleive that it is/was used an an emergency measure but more as a form of contraception. The use of alcohol and drugs by people under 16 (in one word- children) has only made promiscuous sex more prevalent, leading to unprotected encounters and a massive increase in STDs.

    Nowadays such things are not regarded as ‘wrong’ or ‘abnormal’ as they are generally more accepted even by the generation above. Until the 1970s illegitimacy was very much frowned upon and there was no support for single unmarried mothers; today it’s a way of getting benefits and a flat or house, and is regarded as such by many youngsters.

    I don’t believe that this advertising campaign is moral or ethical unless it is only providing information on where to get unbiased advice; however such advice should already be available at GP surgeries, through Health Visitors and School Nurses in their clinics, etc. There are also community family planning clinics that should have this information easily available. How is ith that 42% of women were found not to have any idea about where to go for advice?

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