There was an article in our paper today about a billboard that is erected outside a local high school. It says “Pregnant? Don’t want to be?” and has the name and number of a Christian group that helps with counseling and adoption services. People are having a kneejerk reaction to this and the Christian group has been receiving all these irate phone calls because there’s an “abortion billboard” outside the high school. Instead of looking at the name of the organization, people are assuming it’s an abortion services group trying to get more business from the high schoolers and freaking out.
Is it illegal for abortion service clinics to advertise on billboards (a la cigarette companies, hard liquor companies, etc.)?
Should it be illegal? Legal? Should abortion clinics be able to advertise outside of high schools? Anything stopping them?
Should pregnancy counseling groups that are going to counsel against abortion be allowed to advertise and abortion clinics not be allowed to?
(by the way, I’m talking about near a high school, not on it’s property, in both cases).
From my viewpoint, I don’t have a problem with it. If the intended audience is legally allowed to use the “product” I’m against restrictions. What do you think?
I personally have no problem withthe ides. I also have no problem with those who do object calling the company in question to register their complaints.
The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
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I’m pretty sure a lot of these same people who were so upset at the “Abortion” advertisement outside the high school had no problem with anti-abortionists shoving their liturature with pictures of aborted fetuses at me on my way to work. Yes, I know. I’m not a high school student. But let’s face it, today any teenager who wants to end an unwanted pregancy would have no problem figuring out where to look for a clinic address. (At one time, it was legal for the telephone company (yes, we had only one!) to refuse to list abortion clinics and services in the telephone book.)
Yeah, cleosia, that’s what rubbed me the wrong way about this article. People were irate when they thought it was an abortion clinic that was advertising, but piped down when they found it was a Christian pregnancy counseling center that was anti-abortion. Same audience, same subject. If the high school kids are not so impressionable that they can be confronted with the subject as a whole, why are they all of a sudden so impressionable when abortion is mentioned? I don’t think I’m being very clear here, but do any of you see what I’m saying?
I have a bit of a problem with the sneakiness of such ads…they appear in my college newspaper regularly. The text leads one to believe that they’re offering abortions; there’s no indication to the contrary, like the name of the Christian counseling group.
Without including the name of the group that placed the ad, this seems a bit of a bait-and-switch. They fool someone who may need an abortion into calling so that they can push their agenda.
And I thought their holy book disapproved of lying…
in reply to the questions in the original post, there’s the little matter of free speech and the 1st Amendment. I doubt that you could prevent an abortion clinic from advertising, provided it complies with zoning laws, etc.
But, jti, aren’t there laws against advertisements for cigarettes and hard alcohol on billboards? Or maybe this was something those companies decided to do themselves?
Of course, any billboard company can decide, or not to decide, if it wants to produce a billboard advertising, so the 1st amendment would only apply if the billboard company initially agrees to put the sign up.
It’s my understanding that “commercial speech” doesn’t enjoy the same degree as other types of speech; the closer you go to the core value of political expression, the greater the protection under the 1st Amendment, and the more difficult it is to justify any restrictions.
Given the nature of the abortion debate, and the aspect of personal liberty involved, and the religious elements (invoked primarily by the right-to-life supporters, but in some cases also by some pro-choice folk), I think all advertisements about abortion would be considered to have a strong political element. They would be in a different category than adverts for tobacco and liquor.
But what do I know? DSYoungEsq will probably be along in a few minutes to set me straight.
I’m not looking to get in a huge pissing match here, but is it beyond the realm of possibility that the organization in question might have good intentions? Do people think there’s something wrong with adoption simply because the “Christian” label is applied?
Granted, the particular individuals running the particular organization might try to use tactics that you would interpret as laying guilt trips on women who respond to the ad, but maybe they try to point out that there are thousands of couples who can’t have children…
Abortion mills are legal, so their advertising should also be.
Cigarette billboards are not illegal. They were folded as part of the agreement in the multi-billion dollar shakedown by the various states’ AG’s (that is, “Aspirant Governors”).