Observer attacks online ads for pro-life pregnancy services

The Observer has dismissed Google adverts linked to organisations promoting pregnancy support but not abortion as nothing more than ‘biased marketing’.

UK charities including Life and the Pregnancy Crisis Helpline were criticised by the newspaper for offering women pro-life advice about their pregnancies.

In a similar move last week, a documentary for the BBC’s flagship investigative series Panorama branded Newcastle-based Tyneside Pregnancy Advice Centre (TPAC) ‘coercive’, ‘manipulative’ and ‘deceptive’.

Pro-abortion agenda

In February, the Observer found that 117 of 251 adverts shown by Google UK in response to search phrases such as “buy abortion pill” and “pregnant teenager help” were from pro-life organisations.

It concluded: “The findings reveal the marketing efforts of anti-abortion groups in the UK and have led to concerns that women could be exposed to biased information when seeking out medical advice.”

Controversial sex education charity Brook backed the newspaper’s stance, calling the adverts “clearly immoral”, while pro-abortion MP Stella Creasy claimed the ads were “seeking to mislead vulnerable readers”.

The newspaper made no criticism of adverts promoting abortions from MSI Reproductive Choices and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.

Transparent

The Pregnancy Crisis Helpline, which states on its website that it does not offer medical advice or “refer for abortion”, told the Observer: “If a client asks for medical advice, we signpost them to their GP, 111 or A&E as appropriate.”

And Kerry Smart, chief executive at Life, said: “Our person-centred online pregnancy listening service was inspired by the Samaritans and is non-coercive and non-judgmental.”

Google said that all the adverts in the Observer investigation complied with its rules, adding: “Any organisation that wants to target queries related to getting an abortion must complete our certification process and clearly disclose whether they do or do not offer abortions.”

‘Prejudicial’

TPAC in Newcastle has been running for 14 years, operates with a Christian ethos and offers women advice about their pregnancies, while being clear it does not provide abortions.

One of its advisors was secretly recorded as part of a Panorama investigation broadcast last week, which allowed pro-abortion groups to critique the advice given in the covert footage, but edited out most of TPAC’s response.

Director Chris Richards, an NHS paediatrician, explained: “Panorama could have sought journalistic balance by approaching us directly.

“Instead, your activist production team chose the prejudicial medium of a secret recording to seek to discredit a registered charity that provides free services to women who request them.”

The CI vs Google

In 2008, The Christian Institute issued legal proceedings against Google after the charity’s pro-life advert was blocked because it came from a ‘religious’ organisation.

The case was settled before it reached court, with Google agreeing to change its policy worldwide with immediate effect.

This enabled Christian groups across the globe to place ads on the subject of abortion in a factual and campaigning way.