Shadow
20-05-2010, 14:58
*Abortion advice ad to air on TV Thursday, May 20 2010, 10:33 BST By Andrew Laughlin, The first television commercial featuring advice on abortion services will be aired on British TV next week, in a move which has been praised and attacked by campaign groups. The ad, which is for Marie Stopes, will be screened on May 24 on Channel 4 at 10.10pm during new live show The Million Pound Drop, reports The Guardian. Based around the slogan 'Are you late?', the commercial is claimed to offer "clear, non-judgmental information" on unplanned pregnancies. Marie Stopes chief executive Dana Hovig said that the ad is about providing women with choices rather than promoting abortion. "Last year alone we received 350,000 calls to our 24-hour helpline," she said. "Clearly there are hundreds of thousands of women who want and need sexual health information and advice, and access to services." Darinka Aleksic, campaign manager for Abortion Rights, said that screening the ad represents an "important breakthrough" in providing support services for women. However, anti-abortion campaign group Life has criticised the "grotesque" decision to allow the ad to air on television. "I can only express utter disbelief that this is being allowed, given the opposition to abortion advertising expressed during the recent public consultation," said the organisation's spokeswoman Michaela Aston. "To allow abortion providers to advertise on TV, as though they were no different from car companies or detergent manufacturers, is grotesque." The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that not-for-profit organisations promoting advice on sexual health services are perfectly entitled to advertise on television. "If viewers have concerns about the content or scheduling of the ad, the ASA is able to consider complaints once the ad has aired," said an ASA spokesman. "However, we cannot act on objections that viewers might have about the service being advertised at all." Earlier in the year, advertising regulators announced plans to relax the frequency and timing of TV ads for condoms from September, but delayed a similar move for abortion clinics.*