Archbishop condemns abortion ads

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the next leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, has spoken out against proposals to allow pregnancy advisory services to advertise on TV and radio.

The proposals would also mean information on abortion being provided to viewers and listeners.

The Archbishop said that adverts for condoms “demeaned” young people by showing them as “drunken” and having “casual sex on the street corner”.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee on Advertising Practice (BCAP) are conducting a review of advertising codes and considering placing the adverts to help reduce the rate of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

The review is also looking at proposals to loosen rules on condom adverts so that they can be shown before the 9pm watershed, but not with programmes aimed at children below the age of 10.

Channel 4 currently allows condoms to be advertised from 7pm, although it is the only TV station to do so.

According to BCAP, the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health requested a change in the rules on broadcasting as there had been a large increase in teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Archbishop Nichols said, "Advertisements should be truthful and tasteful. I doubt that any intended adverts about abortion would be fully truthful and tell the whole truth of the effects of abortion in a woman's life,” reports the BBC.

"I seriously wonder if any advertisements for the use of condoms would be tasteful because the ones we have at the moment are demeaning of the young people of this country.”

"They depict casual sex on the street corner and drunken sex. I do not think these things do anything to genuinely help young people to understand themselves in their own dignity and in the proper meaning of what human sexuality is about."

He added that although the media often say they have a duty to "reflect reality", it also has a "responsibility to put something in front of people to which they can aspire".

Archbishop Nichols said that abortion was not a “simple solution” but actually had “traumatic implications in women’s lives”.

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said that allowing broadcasts on abortion would “further commercialise the killing of unborn children".