Advertising Standards Authority: Don't call Pro-life Help Real Help

Despite rejecting more than 5,000 complaints against Marie Stopes International for promoting abortion on TV, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has gone on to bowdlerise a Pro-Life advertisement on the London Underground.
The Good Counsel Network recently placed an advert in London tube stations to reach women in crisis pregnancies and offer them help, as part of their Maria Stops Abortion Campaign. But once the advert copy was submitted to the company who deals with much of the advertising on the Tube, they referred it to the Advertising Standards Authority’s Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) to ensure that it didn’t breach the Advertising Standards Code.
CAP’s first response warned that the use of the name “Maria Stops Abortion” could mean that the poster was seen as denigrating Marie Stopes International. Phrases in the Pro-life ad such as “Find Real Help” and “We really can help” were read as attacking Marie Stopes' failure to provide help. The Good Counsel Network immediately agreed to remove this text from the ad. We felt it was better to get the ad up quickly than to spend months wrangling about the text Maria Stops Abortion being in it or not.
CAP had stated that:

“Because the [ad] mentions ‘Find real help’ and ‘we really can help’ in relation to the Maria Stops Abortion copy [this] would be seen as a claim that a competitor cannot help. We would advise removing the relevant words ‘real’ help/ we ‘really’ can help. They could say ‘find help’ and ‘we can help’ in order to position their service in a less critical manner.”

I then phoned CAP and assured them that “Maria Stops Abortion” was being removed from the advert. I was suprised to find that CAP officials, however, continued to claim that Marie Stopes was still being denigrated by the ad, even though it no longer mentioned them at all!
Tom Marshall, a copy advisor with CAP said that their concerns about the terms, "Find real help" and "We really can help" remained the same as before. He insisted that we were clearly criticising Marie Stopes. Actually, as I pointed out, nothing in the advert referred to Marie Stopes at all. But Mr Marshall replied, "They are your main competitor".

Why should our ad be seen as having a go at MS not for example BPAS or another abortion provider? He replied that due to recent events such as the Marie Stopes TV ad and the furore it caused, people would assume that Marie Stopes were being criticised for a failure to provide genuine help to women in crisis pregnancies.”

Why they were so protective of Marie Stopes I did not know, but a quick look at the ASA's adjudication on the Marie Stopes TV ad helped me to understand. It shows that they have passed that ad accepting Marie Stopes' claim that:

"The ad did not encourage, promote or advocate abortion, but raised awareness about MSIs 24-hour Advice Line, which provided information about sexual health and all pregnancy choices, including, but not limited to, abortion."

The ASA adjudication states:
"We understood that MSI was a Pregnancy Advice Bureau (PAB) regulated by the Department of Health and, as a provider of services on behalf of the NHS, were obliged to offer a range of advice on all the options available to pregnant women."
and again:
"We also noted that many complainants regarded the advertisers as advocates of abortion and therefore interpreted the ad as a promotion of abortion. However, the ad was for an advice service for women dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, and stated that MSI could help women who were "pregnant and not sure what to do". We understood that MSI provided a wide range of advisory and health services and advised on all options during consultations with clients. We noted that the ad did not focus on any one particular service offered by MSI and did not mention abortion. We therefore considered it was an ad for a general pregnancy advice service for women who wished to learn about and discuss their options, which might include, but were not limited to, abortion."
Unfortunately, several recent calls I made to MSI's Helpline (sic) have shown that their operators were unable to provide the number of even one UK based pregnancy help centre. I was given the name of Sidelines (a USA pregnancy centre) but then told "Oh sorry that's not in this country". On another call though I stressed that I was calling for a woman who was under pressure to abort and had serious money problems, the operator repeatedly tried to send me to the Family Planning Association, Brooks Advisory Centre or Connexions. Presumably because these agents of death were the only people she had numbers for.
Understandably enough, for as Our Lord said:
Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be brought to desolation, and house upon house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? (Luke 11:17-18)
See the ASA Adjudication on Marie Stopes here
Despite their own and the Advertising Standards Authorities assurances to the contrary, Marie Stopes International were totally unable to refer me for any help when I requested help for a woman wanting to keep her baby in the face of homelessness, pressure from others or debts.
It seems ridiculous that the ASA considers it’s role in this case to protect Marie Stopes against any imagined attack on it. Once the text Maria Stops Abortion was removed from our ad there was no reason for anyone to take any thing in the ad as an attack on Marie Stopes. The emphasis on REAL help was aimed at women who have real practical needs such as financial problems or nowhere to live. In our experience these women expect that they will be offered tea and sympathy but no concrete help.
We hope we have still managed to get this across despite the censorship.

You can see the text of the advert before and after censorship below. Changes have been highlighted in bold.

The Original Text of the Advert:
Find real help and support in a crisis pregnancy, today. Whatever the problem is, we really can help
The Good Counsel Network is a Catholic, Pro-Life group based in London. We provide friendship, creative solutions, real practical help and support to women in crisis pregnancies and afterwards, regardless of their beliefs, nationality, legal status etc.
This advert is part of the Maria Stops Abortion Campaign

The Bowdlerised Version
Find the help and support you may need in a crisis pregnancy today. Whatever the problem is, we can help.
The Good Counsel Network is a Catholic, Pro-Life group based in London. We provide
friendship, creative solutions, practical help and support to women in crisis
pregnancies and afterwards, regardless of their beliefs, nationality, legal status etc.
Blessed Virgin Mary, Pray for us!

Clare McCullough

Pro-Life Tube Ads Are Up

Well they're up. Some of our posters have already appeared in Central London tube stations. Please pray that they are successful in attracting many women who may otherwise consider aborting their children.

Please pray also that we may raise the funds to continue the campaign if it is successful. And in the meanwhile, let's enjoy seeing Our Blessed Mother's image in tube stations.

It was quite a battle getting them up, but that's a story for another day. If you bump into one of our posters on your travels, ask Our Lady of the Wayside to prepare the hearts and minds of people in this country for the visit of the Vicar of Christ and to end the practise of abortion and euthanasia in our land.

God bless You.

If you would like to donate to our campaign click here.

Clare McCullough

With The Immaculate Heart We Will Convert The Entire World

One of our supporters recently wrote and said

“In response for your plea for funds (see our appeal here) here is a cheque which I hope will help a bit. Thanks be to God that you are putting publicity on the Underground(learn about our poster campaign here). I am sure your hard work and sacrifice will bear much fruit.

The poor hardened old world needs the message of true love so badly even while it is afraid of the sacrifice which is part of real love. We all need this courage and your work is an example and encouragement to me, when times are so dark.

But, with ‘the Immaculate we will convert the entire world!’ St Maximillian Kolbe. Her Immaculate Heart will triumph and Christ will reign again.

Yours in Jesus and Mary.

A supporter "

Stuart McCullough

Marie Stopes Don't Provide Help for Women - Just Abortion. But We Can With Your Support.

Regarding Marie Stopes Abortion TV Ad, this week's Guardian tells us that:

The advertising watchdog has cleared the first British television advert to offer advice on abortion services, despite almost 5,000 complaints.
The Advertising Standards Authority cleared the ad, one of a series of three, of breaking any of the rules in its code, while acknowledging that the issue was "controversial and distasteful for some".
The campaign has become the seventh-most-complained about of all time, with 1,054 official complaints. The ASA also received more than 3,300 postcards and petition signatures from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children and 327 calls before the first ad aired.
The ads featured three women who may have missed their period with a voiceover offering Marie Stopes International as a source of pregnancy advice...
"Many complainants regarded the advertisers as advocates of abortion and therefore interpreted the ad as a promotion of abortion," said the ASA. "However, the ad was for an advice service for women dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, and stated that Marie Stopes could help women who were 'pregnant and not sure what to do'. We considered it was an ad for a general pregnancy advice service for women who wished to learn about and discuss their options, which might include, but were not limited to, abortion."
The ASA also said that the women in the ads looked "deep in thought" and therefore it did not trivialise unplanned pregnancy and did not suggest that only the woman would be affected.
It concluded that the ad would not cause widespread offence and was not harmful in that it would not encourage promiscuity or overly appeal to young people.

Marie Claire's website tells us that:

The ASA added, ‘We were satisfied that any callers to the advice line would be advised about health implications of any intervention or procedure which might be appropriate for her, in consultation with a qualified and regulated healthcare professional.’

If you have had enough of this nonsense and want to see pregnant women receive real help and advice, why not support our advertising campaign, due to start on the London underground shortly. It's also a witness to the fact that catholics and catholic agencies provide real help and support to women in crisis pregnancies. But ads don't come cheap, so please follow the link to donate if you can to The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel: http://www.justgiving.com/goodcounsel/Donate

Clare McCullough

Maria Stops Abortion Ad Campaign

As many Londoners amongst you will know, the abortion providers, Marie Stopes International or BPAS, from time to time will take out advertising on the tubes or over-ground train-lines. When this happens, for several weeks we all have to live with the sight of some tastefully designed posters, promoting abortion as though it was the reasonable person’s answer to the ‘problem’ of an ‘unwanted’ pregnancy. Women who are pregnant and are in a panic can easily be brought to feel that abortion will solve all their problems. And of course the advertising makes no reference either to the horror of what the different abortion procedures involve for the baby OR to the awful suffering that many, many women will endure afterwards.
Advertising abortion on TV will worsen this situation because a) it will bring abortion into every living room and b) it continues the trend of implying that abortion is simple, morally acceptable and is something which facilitates a happy future. So we will continue to oppose TV advertising of abortion with prayer and fasting.
We would also like to increase our outreach to women in trouble in a pregnancy which maybe wasn’t planned or where they suddenly find themselves in crisis. Using the title Maria Stops Abortion, we plan to reach out to women who would otherwise only see adverts for the ‘help’ offered by abortion providers. Tube and rail adverts are extremely expensive, but we feel the need to launch out into the deep and experiment with this type of outreach with the hope that any woman seeking an escape from abortion will find us.
Can you support our advertising programme with any contribution? A regular contribution by standing order helps us to plan ahead for future advertising as well. You can donate by cheque, by card online through the link at: www.goodcounselnetwork.com on the ‘Donate’ page and you can obtain a Standing Order form and/or a Gift Aid form by phoning us or online also on our ‘Donate’ page.
£20.00 buys one ad inside a tube carriage for 2 weeks. But for about £400 we can begin advertising in Stations. If you support this campaign, please send what you can.
Meanwhile, why not get one of our posters put up in your parish or anywhere locally where pregnant girls could see it (while we are mainly London based, we can provide advice and support to girls in England and Wales).

Originally From The Good Counsel Newsletter