Marie Stopes And Abortion Advertisements

EDM number 109 in 2010-12, proposed by Jim Dobbin on 26/05/2010.
Categorised under the topic of Health services.

That this House notes the television abortion advertising campaign on Channel 4 by Marie Stopes International (MSI); is seriously concerned that it breaches the law banning advertisements on the availability of medical procedures and requires that advertising must not be harmful or offensive; asserts that it is reminiscent of international family-planning group tactics in poor countries where for decades workers have been advised that they must break the law to change the law; challenges the claims of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that MSI is not advertising abortion, but offering only counselling and providing information; calls on the ASA to note that MSI is one of the two biggest providers of abortion in the world and has an income of tens of millions of pounds per annum derived entirely from abortion; further notes that the group charges £80 for counselling whether by telephone (which requires bankcard details) or face to face; further notes that MSI counselling always includes telling clients when they can attend a Marie Stopes clinic to have their abortions; recalls that for a number of years the Royal College of Psychiatrists has urged that women considering abortion should be given independent counselling because of possible psychiatric trauma; further notes that MSI depends for its income on clients having abortions and is therefore not independent; and calls on the Government to hold an advertising campaign to discover women who as a result of MSI counselling have had their babies or who are suffering from post-abortion trauma.

This motion has been signed by a total of 13 MPs.