News

Second Time Pro-life Ads Attacked in Six Months

LONDON, January 9, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered a pro-life group not to repeat a pro-life ad the ASA deemed “offensive.” The ad by the UK Life League, was published mostly in Catholic publications and in a Church of England newspaper. The ASA took exception to terms in the ads such as “teenage sex clinics” and “death mills”. The ad also said, “The pro-abortion propagandists want people to believe that going to the abortion mill is no different than going to the beautician for a manicure.”

The ASA upheld the complaint of a member of the public who said the language was “offensive, especially because children and people of varying sexual orientations might see the advertisement”.

The ASA banned another pro-life ad by the League in July last year because it identified the morning after pill as an abortifacient. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) in the UK responded to the July ad ban by directly defying the order placing ads identifying morning-after pills as abortion-inducing. When advertising authorities warned violators could be fined or imprisoned, John Smeaton, SPUC’s national director, said he was prepared to go to jail rather than accede to the order to hide the facts.

See the BBC coverage:  https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1749000/1749837.stm

See related LifeSite coverage:  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/nov/011126.html#5