Did you know that up until yesterday if you typed the word abortion or abortion help, the one thing that you wouldn’t see was pregnancy help?
Up until yesterday, Google banned pro-life advertizing from their search engine. However, thanks to the efforts and legal challenge of a group called the Christian Institute, that has now changed. This change is not even just for the U.S. but worldwide.
[Times Online] Google had banned pro-life religious groups from buying adverts against search terms such as “abortion” and “abortion help” but was forced to abandon its policy after it was accused of breaching equalities legislation.
The challenge was brought by the Christian Institute, a cross-denominational pressure group, who said that Google’s change of heart was an acknowledgement of the rights of everybody to hold an opinion on the subject.
Mike Judge from the Christian Institute said: “Google were taking adverts from pro-abortion groups, and our view is that was a free speech issue. What we want to do is set out the acts in a pretty factual and pretty sensible way”.
Google had been taken to court by the Christian Institute earlier in the year, arguing that its policy was in breach of the Equalities Act of 2006. Initially, Google said it would fight in the courts, but changed its mind over the summer. Its new policy applies globally.
A quick Google search on “abortion help” yielded 8 advertisements. Two of the eight were pro-life. The fantastic Birthright and an ad that was not immediately clear as prolife for a site called Stand Up Girl. I followed the link and what I found fascinated me. The site is run by a young woman named Becky who talks about her own crisis pregnancy. She advises young women to stop and take a timeout. On the site she has testamonials and letters from other women who have found themselves in this situation. But most importantly, she offers help with answers to scary questions and links to resources to help the young mother in crisis.
Thanks to the Christian Institute and Becky for standing up. May God bless you.
September 18, 2008 at 12:52 pm
From the Times article:
A spokesman for Marie Stopes International…“Where we draw the line when people use dodgy research or dodgy arguments to further their case — for example where people show images of 24 week old aborted foetuses and say they are in fact 12 weeks old”.
Yea! That’s why I say murder with a .22 should be legal because a forty-five or a thirty-odd-six are a bigger caliber, since as we all know, size matters.
Um… 12 or 24? Still death of a human life.
September 18, 2008 at 7:05 pm
This is great news, and I was glad to pass it on for my sister, who works for a crisis pregnancy organisation.
triumph! when I searched ‘pregnancy help’ this morning, NONE of the ads that came up were from abortion clinics. They were all either about maternity services and health benefits or for organisations promoting adoption, Birthright, etc. Yay!!
~Nzie
September 22, 2008 at 5:24 am
This is an utter disaster. You may not do evil that good may come of it. No person may tell another how to use private property. There is no legal necessity imaginable for advertising pregnancy help centers. How in the world would this sword not cut both ways?