WASHINGTON, D.C., June 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – American smokers buying their next pack of cigarettes will soon be confronted with graphic images showing the possible consequences of smoking: a dead man, another blowing smoke out a hole in his neck, and images of teeth, lips and lungs marred by cigarette use.
Now, a coalition of pro-life groups is asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give the ugly truth of abortion – something most Americans are sheltered from – fair billing.
“This marks the biggest change in cigarette package warnings in over a quarter of a century and notes the shift in American public opinion about smoking. Smoking has become passe,” said Kristan Hawkins, head of Students for Life of America, which is heading up the petition at AbolishAbortion.com.
“Yet, what about abortion? Where are the warning labels on abortion? Where are the warnings to tell women that abortion will kill their child and scar them for life?”
The International Right to Life Federation, Operation Rescue, Human Life Alliance, and several other pro-life groups have signed on as co-sponsors to the FDA petition.
Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek, who added her name to the petition, said the Obama administration’s move against cigarettes is ironic given its pro-abortion agenda. One cigarette label shows an illustration of an ailing baby with the words: “smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby.”
“Cigarettes claim the lives of 443,000 each year? Abortion claims the lives of nearly 3 times that, 1.2 million each year,” wrote Stanek.
The petition will end August 1.