UK: Reaction to TV abortion advert

The first television advert for abortion, broadcast by Marie Stopes International, has generated positive and negative responses. 

A post by Jennifer Howze on the Times’s Alpha Mummy blog has generated over 100 comments. Howze writes:

‘There has been loads of press about the new Marie Stopes ad, which shows pregnant woman who may or may not be contemplating abortions. The Times’s headline on its debut was entitled “Fury as TV advert for abortion advice gets the go-ahead”.

‘You’d think the ad showed women in sexy hospital gowns doing Glee-style song-and-dance numbers, with a chorus of “Have an abortion, they’re fun!” These critics must be the same kind of people who explode if the cook doesn’t hold the mayo on their burger or who yell out their car windows on the motorway. Most certainly they can’t be people who have ever had that moment where you think, “Oh my God I might be pregnant” and you don’t know what to do.

‘I’m so tired of the hysteria that surrounds even the discussion of abortion. This ad is a grown-up recognition of what can be a lonely, scary moment for a woman, and it talks to women like grown-ups. Could this really be an ad about unwanted pregnancy - no scolding, no paternalistic “there, there, dear”, no moral or emotional blackmail? It certainly doesn’t look like what you’d expect. It’s about time.’

Elsewhere, it has been reported that the Advertising Standards Authority has received 350 complaints from viewers offended by the commercial. The ASA will assess the complaints to see if there is grounds to investigate whether the TV commercial breached the advertising code.

The Christian Institute reports that ‘a group of MPs has called on the government to find out if any women have ever chosen to have their babies after being counselled by MSI, and how many of their patients are now suffering from post-abortion trauma’.

The call was made in an Early Day Motion presented by the Labour MP Jim Dobbin, and the Conservative MPs William Cash and Andrew Rosindell. The trio also expressed concern that the controversial ad was in breach of broadcast regulations, and they challenged the Advertising Standard Authority’s claim that the commercial isn’t advertising abortion.

The “controversial” abortion ad? You decide. Alpha Mummy, 27 May 2010

First UK ad for abortion services draws 350 complaints. Guardian, 28 May 2010

MPs criticise Marie Stopes over abortion commercial. The Christian Institute, 7 June 2010