Darinka Aleksic
‘Considering Abortion? Free Pregnancy Testing Information & Advisory Service, Quick & Confidential.’
If you read this statement in an advert, for a service listed under ‘Abortion Clinics’, what would you think? If you were pregnant and needed advice, you might give them a ring.
Unfortunately, what the Albany Women’s Centre, who posted this advert at Yell.com, failed to mention is that they don’t offer any medical services and they are, in fact, opposed to abortion in principle. Today, following a complaint made by the charity Education for Choice, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the Albany ad was misleading and must not appear again in its current form.
This could be dismissed as a single rogue example, were it not for the fact that anti-choice groups operate networks of pregnancy advice centres around the country. Under proposals currently under consideration by the Department of Health, organisations like this one could be given NHS contracts to provide their own special brand of ‘independent advice and counselling’ to women seeking abortion.
