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THE ADVERTISING STANDARDS Authority (ASA) in the UK has pulled an advert for the Central London Women’s Centre (CLWC) because it gives the impression that it “offered terminations and was therefore an abortion clinic”.
The advertisement made a specific reference to Irish women, stating: “Irish visitors to our site get a quick, local appointment and get all the information you need.”
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service challenged whether the claims on the website were misleading, because it was unclear that the service did not refer women directly for a termination.
Women’s centre advertisement
According to the ruling, the full homepage advert for www.abortionchoices.org stated:
Considering Abortion? For an Immediate Appointment: Fill in our online booking form or call us on [telephone number]. Abortion Alternatives Free Confidential Advisory Service Free Pregnancy Testing Special Service for Teens – Confidential and Supportive.Still undecided? Not Sure What You Want to Do? Take Advantage of Our Free Advisory Service. Just Call or Email us for help. FREE SCANS …
Irish visitors to our site get a quick, local appointment and get all the information you need.
The challenge was upheld, with the ASA stating that the advert gave the impression that the advertiser offered terminations and was therefore an abortion clinic.
The ASA stated that the advertising was “irresponsible, because women seeking a termination could be unnecessarily delayed by contacting the advertiser under the false impression that CLWC was an abortion clinic and would offer impartial advice. We therefore concluded that the advertising was both misleading and irresponsible.
Crisis pregnancy advertising in Ireland
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Sinead Ahern from Choice Ireland said that this sort of misleading advertising is common place in Ireland.
“We have been campaigning on this for a number of years. There is a lack of regulation here and a lack of clear labelling of crisis pregnancy agencies. Many say that they can provide direct referrals or have links with clinics abroad when they do not,” she said.
Ahern said she went undercover to expose one centre that was advertised as a centre for women that provided support for those in crisis pregnancy situations and said she was told that if she decided to have an abortion it would prevent her from having children in the future and could get breast cancer, amongst other things. She said:
There is no regulation as to what these centres can advertise themselves as,” she said, adding, “while in the UK, rulings like this by the ASA are to be welcomed, the Irish ASAI (Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland) say there is nothing they can do.
She said Pro Choice Ireland had called on the ASAI to widen their remit and regulate.
“They said as these centres are not commercial enterprises, there is nothing they can do. They can carry on giving misleading advice and advertise misleading information about the service they provide and it is all perfectly legal,” she said.
“Anyone signposting that they are a service health provider or crisis pregnancy counsellor should be under the remit of the ASA, whether they are a commercial enterprise or not,” said Ahern.
She said Pro Choice Ireland were calling on the government to go one step further and establish a licensing system for crisis pregnancy agencies.
“It is a very important and serious decision for any woman to make and these women are very vulnerable when they are making this decision. Right now there is no legislation around that ensures someone is properly qualified to counsel someone and there is no ethical or legal guidelines on how one can offer a service and how one can advertise a service,” she said.
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More attempts at guilt tripping and “slut shaming”, rather than discussing all the options available to a woman with a crisis pregnancy and helping her choose the option that she feels is correct for her. It’s not even surprising that the anti-choice lobby continue to mess women around by using deceit and obfuscation.
I think such centres in Ireland should be regulated if they offer medical advice.
I think they’re just trying to make a few pound by persuading women to have one. Sick really!
Actually the advice agency whose ad was pulled seems to be advocating quite the opposite, PingPong. “Abortion Alternative” is a bit of a giveaway, I would have thought.
I do not think it is advertising itself honestly.. It’s advert states first ‘considering abortion? ‘ so it is directly addressing women already seeking information on abortion rather than to continue their pregnancies. That is later followed with ‘ abortion alternatives’ which considering the title, could mean different types of abortion, early vacuum, D&C etc…again information on abortion.
They would be better to advertise themselves as a crisis pregnancy advisory clinic as I am pretty sure they do not give out unbiased advice on abortion. Ie. ‘abortion = always bad’
They are an ‘un-abortion clinic’ and yet they do not present themselves as such. Most women seeking abortion information are doing so for the first time. It is disingenuous to claim to offer alternatives when abortion is not one of them.
Real choice/ alternatives include 1/ having an abortion and 2/ not having an abortion. An advice clinic should give information on both.
Good decision by the ASA. It’s totally unacceptable that anyone can open a “crisis pregnancy counselling service” in Ireland and operate with no oversight whatsoever.
It’s important that women realise these clinics are operating in Ireland. Some have links to the Christian Solidarity Party and the illegal “Aadams” adoption agency of the 1990s. The government is fully aware of them but has steadfastly refused to take any action.
Any woman with a crisis pregnancy should ONLY use the services that operate under Crisis Pregnancy Agency guidelines. They are listed here: http://www.positiveoptions.ie/
Wasn’t a crisis pregnancy service in Cork found to be giving advice illegally too? Don’t remember it in detail.
The problem is that it is not illegal, Niall. There is no law against engaging in these types of practices. That has to change.
Yeah…a load of crisis pregnancy agencies around the country were found to be giving dangerous advice to women. Advising them to hide abortions from their GPs etc. Most of them affiliated to IFPA as I recall.
While talking about “rogue” clinics would you include those that give dangerous and possible illegal advice? I mean those that told women that they could illegally import strong drugs without a prescription? How about the clinics that encouraged women to withhold medical facts from their doctors? how about those that didn’t offer any options other than abortion? You’re all very quiet about those.
Liam, which clinics offer only abortion advice? There are none.
And women can illegally import abortion drugs, a practice which has been approved as safe by the WHO. Services are stuck in an incredibly difficult place when a woman is desperate enough that if she can’t access these safe, WHO approved illegal abortion pills, she’ll try a DIY abortion.
Using deceit has become their trademark.
Daisy. . . What an awful comment to make.
I hope you or any of your family are ever in the position where you would need to make that choice. .
And to be honest.. . It’s actually no one’s business is there are women out there that make that choice. While I don’t agree with it been used as a form of contraception. . . I do think that if some one is the victim of sexual abuse or a child would be born with severe disabilities then it’s not your or my place to question why some one has a termination. . .
The advice centers and clinics should be governed by strict guide lines. And be answerable to the wrong information they may provide.
I think you missed the dripping sarcasm in Daisy’s comment there Pip?
Most likely in response to B Cinneide’s glib comment about women being happy to ‘murder a baby or two’.
Pip, I think you’ve completely mis-read Daisy’s comment.
Still a disgusting comment to make. The both of them actually.
I’m sure their add was based on their own statistics.
Oh, how awful. Those dreadful anti-abortionists at it again. When will they ever learn that the vast majority of women would want to murder a baby or two now and then.
Ah religion-land. Where invisible men in the sky watch over us and non-sentient pieces of women’s bodies are “babies”.
Absolutely Vile
I am sick of old men like you having a power trip by controlling young women’s bodies. There’s something very wrong with ye.
Hear hear, Poison Ivy!
@brian See comment above. Glitch in app posted it in wrong place.
If there is going to be regulation i hope it extends to the likes of IFPA, who war caught putting women’s lives in danger by telling them not to tell doctors they have had an abortion.
very true Maria.
the scandal of gender selective abortions has been reported in the UK.
the chief executive of the British Family Planning Association Ann Furedi has said earlier this week, that gender selective abortions should be legal.
it seems that the powerful abortion industry in the UK, is above the law.
The UK Telegraph is the only newspaper reporting on this scandal, – the rest of the British media seems to have gone very quiet on this.
total double standards.
article from yesterdays Telegraph. – truly sickening
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10316715/Women-are-legally-free-to-abort-a-baby-because-of-its-sex-says-abortion-charity-head.html
Unfortunately, that’s what happens when you make abortion a crime. I can’t tell you how many women have asked if they have to tell their GPs – this is what happen when doctors don’t advocate a non judgmental attitude towards a procedure that women have taken advantage of through their legal right to travel.
Zoe, if girls have the ‘right’ to be born, why not allow women the right to determine when they have babies? What are you afraid off?
Also, I’m curious as to what sentence Zoe thinks the women participating deserve? The majority of these women are from Asian backgrounds, devalued by their families and are massively pressured into having a son (which their families view as more important.) Curious as to how long Zoe believes these women should be imprisoned?
Today’s Graun: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/19/sex-selective-abortion-womans-right
“it doesn’t matter whether what’s growing inside you is liable to end up as a man or a woman. What matters is whether the person it’s growing inside – the person who is going to have to deliver the resulting baby, at not inconsiderable personal peril – actually wants to be pregnant and give birth to this child. In a world where it’s possible to end a pregnancy safely and legally, it seems like rank brutality to force anyone to carry to term against her will.”
Jesus brian. How does crisis pregnancy add up to the vast majority of women wanting to murder a baby or two?!?! Aside from the fact that its a sweeping generalisation it’s also such a vile misogynistic thing to say. I pity any women who are closely connected with you. Your opinion of the must be very very low
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