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BPAS advertisement spotted by Bones at Victoria station. The text reads:
What do you call a woman who's had an abortion?
Mother. Daughter. Sister. Friend.
Abortion. No more names.
The majority of people seeing it will not know much about the work of pro-life organisations. They will not know that the Sisters of the Gospel of Life, the Good Counsel Network and LIFE offer help to women who are in a crisis because of their pregnancy, both during the pregnancy and after the baby is born. They will not know of the help that SPUC gives through its British Victims of Abortion service, or the many other services offered by pro-life groups for women who have had an abortion. They will not have read the kindly words of Blessed John Paul in Evangelium Vitae n.99 to women who have had an abortion.
What they will now think they know, is that people opposed to abortion call women names if they have had an abortion. They won't know what those names are, because pro-lifers don't call women names, they work hard for women, whatever their past.
This is a sly and deceitful piece of propaganda designed to discredit the pro-life cause without any justification whatsoever. It has nothing to do with the welfare of women and everything to do with protecting the profits of BPAS - who can afford to display this kind of billboard at several London termini.
11 comments:
If you go to the Charities commission website and seek the annual accounts for BPAS, you will see that they received voluntary donations of £10K. The remainder of their income £25.51M is from taxpayer funded abortions. Earlier this year they apparently spent £40K on advertisements attacking the SofS views on reducing the limit for abortions.
How much have they spent on the advertising mentioned here? A pretty penny no doubt. And all paid for by you and me.
The government are obviously giving them too much money for their foul abortion service.
In fact why should the taxpayer pay anything for (in the words of the prochoice brigade) to remove the products of recreational sex?
Let those who get pregnant pay for their own abortions. Or perhaps those wealthy libertarians who are pouring money into 'abortion rights' - let them pay for them.
Interesting. Many thanks. The figure they are quoting for the latest advertising campaign is £50k
For others who may want to look, here is the link for their most recent annual accounts.
Johnf, I think you took the figures from the graphical summary. In the accounts, the £0.01m pie graph figure is not in fact £10,000 but £7,000 (I suppose they didn't want a £0.007m figure.) They actually got £12,000 in investment income last year! And then of course £25,514,000 (the hundreds not worth counting) "fees for services".
I blogged on this some time ago and Neil Addison has written to Radio 4s, check the stats show to verify their 1 in 3 claim.
It's worth noting how BPAS have spun the stats for this entire campaign.
http://carolinefarrow.com/2012/10/16/report-bpas-to-the-asa/
http://carolinefarrow.com/2012/10/16/sauce-for-the-goose/
Another thing that should be highlighted here is that this is an advertisement for abortion. It's an attempt to normalise it and influence thinking. How can BPAS claim to offer impartial counselling if they are advertising one of the outcomes as being desirable, especially when they receive money from providing this service.
It shouldn't matter how many other women have had an abortion when it comes to whether or not you should kill your own unborn child.
It's unbelievable that adverts for killing children are thought to be acceptable.
I agree, the main purpose of the ad seems to be to imply pro-lifers are a bunch of "name callers" (which is of course name calling).
Sadly it's not just London, there is also one In Leeds Train Station.
Manchester as well, according to the publicity.
Father Finnegan
Yes, I did take the data from the rounded up report and suspected that the donations were less than £10K.
Thanks for the other more detailed link.
I have pointed out to my MP, Oliver Letwin that they spent £40K in countering the SoFS suggestion that the abortion limit should be reduced to 12 weeks. Mr Letwin has written to the SofS and we await his reply with interest!
My donations to SPUC do not qualify for tax relief because, as I understand it, SPUC cannot be a charity because, as I understand it, of their political campaigns.
So how to BPAS get away with it? Does anyone know?
That is a good point, Simon. We need to specify instances of political campaigning by BPAS and perhaps brief one or two good MPs on the matter.
Being a charity is little more than a tax status these days. SPUC don't qualify under the rules of the Charity Commission due to the 'public benefit' test.
I suspect that is how BPAS are getting away with it, although they are very careful not to directly lobby politicians.
The pernicious organisations here are Education for Choice who are now part of Brook Charity. They are a classic example of government sock puppets. An organisation funded by the government that exists to lobby the government. EfC are supporting and promoting BPAS so one could get them on these grounds, if you look at their website, it will make you puke. Note that they misrepresent the Catholic position on abortion and lobby to get pro life groups out of schools.
http://www.efc.org.uk/young_people/facts_about_abortion/religion.html#3
I think the reason SPUC don't qualify is because a charity may not engage in political campaigning. Though one would then wonder about CAFOD.
I should have mentioned too, that SPUC does have a charitable wing, the SPUC Research and Education Trust. Donations to that can be gift- aided.
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