"I believe in the right to choose, but TV adverts for abortion are simply wrong"

[The Straight Story]

I believe in the right to choose, but TV adverts for abortion are simply wrong

By Jan Moir

On Monday night, just after the Million Pound Drop Game hosted by Davina McCall, the UK's first television advert for abortion will be screened.

Not everywhere, of course. Viewers in northern Ireland will be spared the message that abortion is just another consumer opportunity, like a trip to the spa or a new lipstick. Understandably, perhaps, as terminations are largely still illegal there.

Elsewhere, kids, it's all abortion systems go.

'Are you late?' a young girl is asked in the advert, as she stares morosely out of a coffee shop window. A student and a young mother-of-two are also featured in the month-long campaign, which is being run by the Marie Stopes International charity. It carries out 65,000 terminations a year in British clinics, mostly on behalf of the NHS.

Already there has been a tumult from pro-life groups, appalled at the thought of the ad campaign. One of them, the Society For The Protection Of The Unborn Child, is mounting a last-minute legal bid to have the advertisements stopped.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1280112/JAN-MOIR-I-believe-right-choose-TV-adverts-abortion-simply-wrong.html#ixzz0oYgOhuyJ

[ejpoeta]

1. could you imagine an ad for abortion here. people's heads would explode.

i don't know if i like the idea of an ad.... anymore than i like the ads for designer drugs. It's one thing to have a public service ad that just says you have options, but an ad selling abortions? just having them legal and treated as you would any other medical procedure would be enough.

[RC]

2. Ads against abortion, moral. Counter ads promoting abortion evil.

Where is the woman in all this?
Where is the help for the woman after the forced birth by those same people that think the "rights" of the unborn supersede the "rights" of the mother to be?

When they start putting the Rights of the mother/mother-to-be first, then we will see a closing of the war against the rights of women.

[ejpoeta]

4. i don't supprt either. i support a woman's right to choose. i believe that abortion

should be treated as any other procedure. i believe if you don't believe in abortion don't have one. i find it fascinating how people can say stay out of my business and are all for privacy except abortion and gay marriage... then the government should get involved.

[bettyellen]

9. thank you !

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. my sentiments exactly.

I see it as life or death for women, and the fact that women's lives don't even ENTER INTO the equation for the so-called "pro-lifers" shows the deeply ingrained lack of human empathy for women.

[DailyGrind51]

3. The next thing you know, we will see ads for assisted suicide!

"You want to end your misery now? Dr. Death will show you how!"

[Warren Stupidity]

7. And that would be wrong why?

[queenjane]

8. And why not? It's all about controlling your life

We have zero choice about being born, but beyond that, we SHOULD have a choice about whether to have children, or to end our lives when and how we see fit. Ultimately, the only thing each of us, as individuals, truly owns and controls is our own body.

[moriah]

12. Consdering I saw my father die a slow and painful death...

... from end-stage AIDS less than a year ago, and heard him say several times he wished he could have died with more dignity -- the hospice did the best they could for him under the laws, but he finally retreated into full unconsciousness after he suffered the indignity of having to have a catheter put in (after he fell despite me trying to help him to the bathroom and urinated all over himself)....

I wish Dr. Death could have been there to have spared him those last agonies. I know he wished he could have. I'm not faulting the hospice at all -- they did what they could, and made it a hell of a lot easier than full medical attempts to prolong his life would have been in a regular hospital -- but those last days listening to his breath becoming more and more labored, staying up in rotations so we could make sure he got his morphine at the times he was supposed to (he had a PCA pump in place but once he couldn't push the button anymore we had to push it as needed to control the symptoms of shortness of breath, obvious pain shown from writhing or groaning even though he wasn't conscious, etc)....

It was the hardest thing I've ever gone through, and I know it was infinitely harder on him. He wasn't fond of having his underlying diagnosis shared, but the terminal condition was a liver tumor that was the size of a newborn baby's head two months before he finally died, and it had spread to his lung. Regardless of if a person has HIV or not, surely that kind of pain and suffering from that severe of cancer should be allowed to be ended in a more dignified and more humane manner.

[tmyers09]

5. I can't see how this would be a bad thing.

A lot of women might not be aware that it is still a legal medical procedure, what with all of the outrage on the other side. Advertising the fact that that choice can still be made is perfectly fine.

[mr blur]

6. Consider the source.

That is all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. I believe in the right to speak, but Jan Moir columns are simply wrong

Such as her homophobic column about Stephen Gately: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/16/stephen-gately-boyzone

[old mark]

11. I support the individuals right to free choice in life, period. I certainly believe we should

have TV ads for all possible choices for people facing difficult decisions, be it about abortion or assisted suicide - or even about the existence of god. We should have NON-religious programming whenever there is a "religious" program offered so people can make well informed choices. Some of the science programming already on TV is really hated by "religious" people who believe in creationism, 6,000 year old earth and other idiocies. IMO, you can believe any religion you want-no matter how laughable-but don't force others to subscribe to your nonsense.

mark