Sydney Joins UK Bishops in Denouncing Abortion Ads

SYDNEY, Australia, MAY 27, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Sydney Archdiocese is backing U.K. bishops in denouncing a television advertisement from an abortion service provider that aired in the United Kingdom this week.

The commercial, produced by Marie Stopes International, one of the biggest abortion providers in the United Kingdom, asks women, "Are you late?"

"If you're late for your period, you could be pregnant," the advertisement states. "If you're pregnant and don't know what to do, Marie Stopes International can help."

The bishops' conference of England and Wales released a statement denouncing the broadcasting of "services which offer or refer for abortion."

Today, the Sydney Archdiocese published an article backing the U.K. bishops, affirming that "there is no real public interest involved in the advertising of abortion services."

Chris Meney, director of the Life, Marriage and Family Center, asserted that "it is a corruption of the proper role of broadcasting and communication agencies to employ them in a manner" that promotes the services of those organizations making money from the harm that comes to a mother and child through abortion.

Meney added, "A truly caring society needs to offer a vulnerable pregnant mother something better than the deliberate destruction of her unborn baby."

"Many women who experience an unplanned pregnancy sadly opt for abortion," he noted. "Their reasons for doing so are rarely about 'health.'"

Social concerns

"Rather," Meney explained, "they often feel unprepared for parenting or want to avoid being a single mother. Such concerns are essentially social and community ones."

The archdiocesan communiqué noted that Marie Stopes International, a non-governmental organization with 42 centers worldwide, also has a presence in Australia.

However, the Australian division of the organization stated that there are no plans to air the U.K. commercial or a similar one in that country "because it would probably cause too much of an uproar."

The archdiocesan article highlighted the statement of the bishops of England and Wales, which expressed concern that "to allow the broadcasting advertising of abortion-referral services is, in effect, to allow the exploitative promotion of these services and is not in the interests of the health or psychological well-being of women."