Roundup: Complaints, Victories, and Useless Ultrasounds

May 28, 2010, 8:43am

Robin Marty

The U.K. pregnancy services ad brings in a bevy of complaints, Mexico approves the morning after pill for rape victims, Crist still waits for a bill, and mandatory ultrasounds are found mostly useless.

The Marie Stopes “Are You Late” ad has now been on the air for a few days, and the anti-choice activists wanting to block women from having information have found a new way to protest the ad — by calling in complaints to the advertising regulator. Well over 350 complaints have been filed so far, in an attempt to get the ad challenged as breaching decency codes. But as Campaign explains, it’s going to be a hard argument for the anti-choice crowd to win.

“Non-commercial providers of post-conception advice services have long been permitted to advertise on television in the UK. There has been no change to the Advertising Code or the law in this regard.”

The statement concludes: “If viewers have concerns about the content or scheduling of the ad, the Advertising Standards Authority is able to consider complaints once the ad has aired. However, we cannot act on objections that viewers might have about the service being advertised at all.”

Marina Palomba, advertising law partner at Reed Smith and formerly legal director at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, sat on the committee that drafted the new broadcast committee of advertising practice (BCAP) code.

She said: “Marie Stopes is a not-for-profit organisation which, it argues, does not promote abortion, but allows women to make confident and informed choices about their sexual health.”

She added: “The absolute right of commercial freedom of expression is not recognised in UK law in the same way that it is in the USA, and many products or services are, of course, restricted as to what they can do when it comes to advertising. Given this is a highly sensitive area, there will always be those who object to the right to advertise.”

Palomba said that in her view it was not an issue of human rights, nor one of freedom of expression, but one of “balancing the right to information.”

In Mexico, women who have been raped will now be allowed access to the morning after pill in hospitals, thanks to a recent court ruling. The AP reports:

Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld a law requiring hospitals to offer rape victims a morning-after birth control pill, rejecting an appeal that argued the pill’s effect constitutes the equivalent of an abortion.

Abortion is regulated under state laws in Mexico, and most of the 31 states outlaw elective abortions. An appeal filed by the Jalisco state government says the federal morning-after law is an intrusion on states’ rights.

But justices disagreed in an 10-1 vote Thursday. The majority ruled that use of the pill is not the equivalent of abortion, but rather is part of a public health policy.

The court said the federal government has the right to set health policy.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist is STILL waiting for the ultrasound bill, and it appears that it is actually being held up by the same people who fought to pass it, according to the Miami Herald.

The measure, which would require pregnant women in Florida to view a sonogram of the fetus, sits in a file drawer in the desk of House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, whose spokeswoman said there’s no specific reason why it hasn’t been sent to Crist.

“We just haven’t sent it. There’s no sense of urgency,” spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin said.

Crist must act on a bill within 15 days of receiving it. The bill would take effect July 1.

Opponents speculate that House leaders are deliberately delaying to give bill supporters the most possible time to flood the governor’s office with calls and e-mails.

Todd Reid, staff director of the House Republican caucus, said the House is holding the bill “to give pro-life folks time to get their act together and contact the governor.”

Through Thursday, Crist’s office had received 20,018 calls, e-mails and letters urging him to sign the bill, and 12,989 total messages urging a veto.

Even if the ultrasound bill does pass, the impact it would have on abortions would likely be microscopic, according to the New York Times. It appears in most instances, not only do ultrasounds not change women’s minds about getting an abortion, but in some cases it even helps make the decision to do so easier.

In one of the few studies of the issue — there have been none in the United States — two abortion clinics in British Columbia found that 73 percent of patients wanted to see an image if offered the chance. Eighty-four percent of the 254 women who viewed sonograms said it did not make the experience more difficult, and none reversed her decision.

That generally has also been the case in Alabama, which enacted its law, the first of its kind in the United States, in 2002.

“About half of women opt to view them,” said Diane Derzis, who owns the Birmingham clinic. “And I’ve never had one patient get off the table because she saw what her fetus looks like.”

In some instances, the ultrasounds have affected women in ways not intended by anti-abortion strategists. Because human features may barely be detectable during much of the first trimester, when 9 of 10 abortions are performed, some women find viewing the images reassuring.

“It just looked like a little egg, and I couldn’t see arms or legs or a face,” said Tiesha, 27, who chose to view her 8-week-old embryo before aborting it at the Birmingham clinic. “It was really the picture of the ultrasound that made me feel it was O.K.”

May 27, 2010

Abortion numbers drop in Cornwall – BBC News

Anti-abortion bill still sitting in Florida House – MiamiHerald.com

Teen Birth, Abortion Rates Among Canadians Down 37 Percent – AHN | All Headline News

Governor Vetoes Abortion Insurance Bill – News On 6

House Republican Leader Boehner to Receive Pro-Life Award at Right to Life Event – LifeNews.com

Groups urge G8 to improve health of women, children – CTV.ca

GOP-tea party favorite Maes wants it both ways on abortion – The Colorado Independent

SPUC launches legal challenge to abortion guidelines – BBC News

Sydney Joins UK Bishops in Denouncing Abortion Ads – Catholic.net

Maternal health and Canada’s culture war – True/Slant

Feminists can be anti-abortion – Chicago Tribune