A controversial proposal to allow commercial abortion providers to advertise their services on television and radio has come under fire.
Currently abortion clinics can only advertise their services if they are not run for profit.
However the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) wants to relax the rules to allow adverts by commercial abortion providers.
Opposed
The Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF), which represents over 4,000 doctors, is “strongly opposed” to the controversial proposal.
Phillippa Taylor, head of public policy at CMF, said: “Adverts on TV and radio that promote abortion sell it as a trivial and harmless procedure, which can easily be carried out in a lunch hour, with no long lasting effects or dangers.
“How far from the truth that is, and dangerous too, for those women who believe the adverts.”
Unwanted
The relaxation was one of the radical proposals contained in a consultation document released by the BCAP in June.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) responded by warning that such advertising would normalise “the treatment of children as wanted or unwanted products”.
Vulnerable
The consultation, which has now closed, also proposed to make any post-conception advice services state on their adverts if they do not directly refer for abortion – a move which also came in for criticism from Ms Taylor.
She said: “This is a deliberate attempt to steer vulnerable women with a crisis pregnancy who are considering abortion away from independent advisory centres such as LIFE and Care Confidential”.
A spokesman for SPUC, a pro-life group, said: “BCAP have returned in their quest to weaken restrictions on abortion advertising.
Betray
“Their latest consultation discriminates against pro-life charities and seeks to treat abortion as no different from any other commercial service.
“Allowing such advertising will further betray women who have already been let down by our society.”
Last year Marie Stopes International, a non-profit organisation, aired the nation’s first abortion advert.