Pro-life vigil against plans to advertise abortion on TV London, Monday, - Members of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) held a vigil outside the Advertising Standards Authority in London on Friday (19 June) to show their concern at proposals to advertise abortion on television.
Participants were led by Mrs Anne Fearon of Crosby, Merseyside, who said: "SPUC members from all over the country are anxious to have their voice heard. We do not want adverts for abortion services on TV and radio. This would only lead to more abortions, and there are already around 200,000 every year. Women deserve better than abortion. Whilst abortion providers would have plenty of money to pay for advertising, the pro-life groups would not be able to afford to advertise the alternatives to abortion."
Mrs Fearon was joined by Dr Peter Fearon, her husband, and James and Catherine Fearon, their twin son and daughter aged 16.
SPUC supporters from London and Oxfordshire also took part, as well as members of SPUC staff.
During the vigil, Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, presented SPUC's submission to the authority's consultation on advertising abortion.
It is on the web at http://is.gd/19hw5 The submission concludes: "Abortion should not be treated in such a way as to reduce its ethical significance, which would surely be the case if it became the object of television and radio advertisements. Advertising should also not be regulated in such a way as to deliberately discriminate against one well-respected and carefully developed perspective. "The strongly predominant wish in the community is for the numbers of abortions to decrease, not increase. However, advertising of abortion services would promote abortion, increase its incidence and thereby increase harm to all involved." Sponsorship for the vigil will go towards SPUC's campaign against the ASA's proposal.
Links to high resolution pictures of the vigil can be found at the foot of this webpage: http://is.gd/19ico An SPUC press release about the proposals for advertising abortion is on the web at http://is.gd/19hpQ