Brilliant Marie Stopes Pregnancy Ad Breaks Ground

U.S. organizations take note! British family planning is advertising on tv, and it has cleared the hoops and hurdles. The classy "Are You Late" ad of Marie Stopes International received an okay from the official watchdog organization, despite the engineered complaints from anti-abortion and anti-family-planning agitators. [Yes! We need this campaign in the states!}

Marie Stopes, which is the British equivalent of Planned Parenthood, released a television advertisement on mainstream British television on May 24. Called "Are You Late?" the 30-second advertisement is reposted on YouTube and on the Stopes website. With airy music in the background, the ad shows three women in sequence -- one at a bus stop, one pushing a stroller, one at a cafe. On the image of each, lettering appears on screen, saying, for example, "Jenny Evans is Late." At the end of the sequence, a narrator says, "If you're late for your period, you could be pregnant. If you're pregnant and not sure what to do, Marie Stopes could help."
The screen shows a phone number and the Marie Stopes website, which lists pregnancy options.

Marie Stopes provides background on its site:

"Every year Marie Stopes International sees thousands of women and supports them in their decision about whether or not to continue with an unplanned pregnancy. We believe that every woman has the right to accurate, unbiased information about all of her pregnancy choices, including abortion."

Abortion has been legal in Britain for over 40 years and one in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime. The time has come to talk more openly and honestly about abortion and we hope that the TV commercial will help to break down the taboos that persist around this issue."

Despite the best efforts of anti-abortion folks to whip up a controversy -- watch here as Fox News personnel try to whip up concern ("promotes abortion as a lifestyle choice") -- the ads went off without a hitch, running in May and June.

Earlier in August, the British watchdog Advertising Standards Authority cleared the ads and said that they did not violate any tv standards. The Guardian newspaper noted that the campaign generated 1,054 official complaints -- including 3,300 postcards and petition signatures from the anit-abortion Society for the Protection of Unborn Children before the first ad even aired. The complaints said the ad promoted political beliefs, promoted abortion, offended religious beliefs, trivialized abortion, ignored the father, would encourage promiscuity, and "was sexist in that it portrayed pregnancy as a woman's responsibility," reports the Guardian.

The Ad Standards Authority said many complaints interpreted the ad as a promotion of abortion. "We considered it was an ad for a general pregnancy advice service for women who wished to learn about and discuss their options, which might include, but were not limited to, abortion," said the ASA in The Guardian.

The BBC added that the Ad Standards Authority said: "We understood that post-conception decisions could be very difficult, but considered the ad dealt with the issue of possible pregnancy in an understated way and was not sensationalist."

Marie Stopes told the BBC that the response to the ad has been overwhelmingly positive. "Are You Late" is one of a three-part ad campaign it will be running.

Hey -- U.S. pro-choice organizations ... aren't we LATE on this? Sure, it's costly, but let's use this approved model to get our own tv campaign going!

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pic above: Screen shot, Marie Stopes Int'l tv ad

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Live Tweeting & Angie's Abortion

Six months after creating a media stir by describing the process of her abortion on the Internet, Angie Jackson recently took down the negative comments that had flooded her YouTube.

On February 22, 2010, Jackson put up a 2.5 minute YouTube video explaining that she had decided to have a so-called "medical abortion" -- that is, using pills known as RU-486 or mifepristone. Then she live-tweeted what was happening with her body as it went along. Bear in mind that this is a process somewhat like a very early miscarriage and occurs in private spaces -- home, apartment. Angie explained that she wanted to break down stereotypes about exactly what is involved in a pill abortion or that it is always a negative experience that women somehow regret. The initial video had over 200,000 hits. (At the end of this post are a series of links to the Angie Jackson story.)

Instantly, Jackson was criticized, sometimes from the anti-abortion flamers, and sometimes from pro-choice allies who thought her indiscreet. She was hailed for her courage and openness, but this only came from pro-choice allies; and she was treated to plenty of media curiousity as it became the 24-hour story-of-the-day.

What Angie did show is how social media -- YouTube and Twitter -- can create a public conversation. Angie's form of online consciousness-raising is a powerful way to break down stereotypes and direct and open up conversations. Angie's creativity is definitely admirable.

Will it make a change in the long-run? Will abortion critics disappear? Will women seek abortions feel more confident and more safe? May be!

There are many skeptics who poke and probe about the power of social media and the Internet, and without lots of money, few ways to measure the impact. But there is this truth about abortion: the anti-abortion groups and individuals have worked for years to silence women and their positive pro-choice experiences. Every action that pushes beyond those boundaries adds to building a safety and access for women who are considering abortion.

To follow the Angie story, here is a collection of links.

From Angie:

Angie on Her Decisions
Blog on February 17. 2010

Original YouTube, Feb. 22, 2010.
"I'm having an abortion right now."

Angie YouTube Responds to Critic, Still Not Ashamed. Feb. 26, 2010.

Angie YouTube, Abortion Clarifications. March 1, 2010.

Angie YouTube Responds to Critic, A World Exposure (see below). March 7, 2010.
"You want me to be sad? Why?"

Angie YouTube Responds to Critic, OhNoItsCommonSense(Original apparently deleted). March 8, 2010.

Angie Blogs on "Media Circus."

Angie's Blog.
Following this and other events as Angie Anti-Theist.

Angie's Twitter.(@antitheistangie)(#livetweetingabortion recently not available.)

News Stories and Blogs:

CNN woman live tweets.

ABC.

New York Daily News.

Catharine Smith and Bianca Bosker on Huffington.

Mediate.
Blog commentary.

Mara Gay, AOL News.

Friendly Atheist.
Discussing Angie's decision.

Debra Sweet.
Supporting an unapologetic abortion.

MissLaidLow British YouTube Commentary.

Critics of Angie.

A World Exposed (see link to Angie response above.)
Angie's original video is "without a doubt one of the more disturbing videos I’ve seen on the Internet."

Anti-abortion Jill Stanek gets in on the act. Also here.

'Nose On Your Face' YouTube Modifies Angie's Report.
"And before you go drawing conclusions, I'm not so much anti-abortion as I am anti-narcissistic stupidity."

Pro-Choice Criticism from Mary Ann Sorrentino.
Privacy should be central to abortion, not public displays.


The Angie Jackson abortion is over, and the story is done. But the lessons continue. Social media, YouTube and the Internet are powerful tools. How can the pro-choice community harness them?

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pictured above: screen shot, Angie Jackson

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12th & Delware: Responses and Replies

The documentary film, 12th and Delaware,has garnered a great deal of attention since its airing on HBO in early August. The 80-minute film, mostly focusing on people at a center that tries to dissuade women from having abortions, has come in for its share of commentary and criticism.

Marcia G. Yerman, writing on cultureid.com, did an excellent job of recreating the story and chronology of the film (see original for links):

"Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the team responsible for the Academy Award nominated Jesus Camp, they once again employ a fly-on-the-wall point of view. This time they explore the white-hot struggle over abortion.
12th & Delaware utilizes a street intersection in Fort Pierce, Florida, to illustrate the deep ideological divide between two camps of thought. The metaphor emanates from the physical proximity of two facilities located across the road from each other. One is an abortion clinic called A Woman’s World. The other is an office named the Pregnancy Care Center. The later came into town in 1999, eight years after A Woman’s World opened up. When a chiropractor vacated the adjacent building, the pro-life organization purchased it. Part of the current strategy of those opposed to abortion is to have offices offering undefined services to pregnant women located close to Planned Parenthood health centers and independent abortion clinics. Many women inadvertently end up at the wrong destination.

The film took two years to make. Footage was shot the same year that Dr. George Tiller was murdered. The team contacted over 100 crisis pregnancy centers before they chose the Fort Pierce location. A screenwriter’s imagination could not have set the scene any better.

The film begins in the darkness before dawn. At 5 a.m., a woman with a sign saying, “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” has already taken up her post directly in front of A Woman’s World. She is a regular presence, with a repertoire of pleading entreaties. One of her refrains is, “95 percent of women will tell you that they regret their abortion.” She holds up a fetal figure, part of her visual arsenal.
We meet Anne, the director of the Pregnancy Care Center, who explains her commitment to her work. With only “herself and her two dogs to be responsible for,” she is devoted to the pro-life movement. We see her interact with a series of girls and women. The youngest is 15. The center’s offer of a free ultrasound is particularly persuasive, especially for those without insurance.

The camera follows Anne during her intake consultations, and then monitors her comments to her staff. “She’s abortion-minded,” or “Let’s look for a heartbeat to influence her decision,” are favorites. In a moment of chalking up victories for her cause she exclaims, “Yes. Yes. Two in one day!” To a 17-year-old girl who has had a prior abortion, her advice is not to tell her mother about the situation. When she takes the girl and her boyfriend through the visuals of the ultrasound (“It shows what’s happening there.”), she types onto the screen, “Hi Daddy.”

Anne is scathing in her attitude towards her adversaries across the way, equating the clinic to a car dealership. However, as we watch her do a training session with future personnel, she puts forth an agenda of techniques that would put a car salesman to shame. She tells them, “Attract the client. Hook her right away. Engage her in conversation.” She explains, “I’m not trying to talk her out of it. I’m trying to get her in the door. There’s no deceit in this.”

Direct and intense, Anne asks an 11th grade girl, “Do you know what you really choose when you choose abortion?” She shows her a video and informs her that as a result of the procedure, she may lose so much blood that she may die. Realizing she has overplayed her hand, she takes a step back and asks soothingly, “Want to go with the computer animated [video]? There’s no blood. It’s all animated.”

Anne does get push back from 24-year-old Victoria, who already has two children. Trying to convince her to keep her options open, she buys her lunch while they talk things out. When Victoria informs Anne that her boyfriend is verbally abusive, Anne offers that, “The baby might change him.” However, Victoria stands firm insisting, “I have to do what’s best for me and my kids. I know for a fact I won’t regret it. Abortion is to terminate unwanted pregnancy.” Stepping outside to make a phone call her conversation relates, “This bitch is getting on my (expletive) nerves.” She’s not gonna be there.” Resolving to get her ultrasound so she “can get out of there,” Victoria says later, “Maybe because she thought she bought me McDonald’s, I was gonna change my mind.”

A cast of players, like a Greek chorus, supports Anne’s point of view. Father Tom Euteneur preaches in his church that abortion is a “ritualized blood sacrifice.” He tells his parishioners, “We’re speaking about something deeply diabolical.” A man in shorts, with the body of a bouncer, has made it his mission to track down the identities of the attending physicians—so that he can pass the information on to those who will make the best use of it. He states flatly, “This is life and death we’re dealing with here.” He notes derisively, “Someone came up with the idea it’s a woman’s right.”

Wandering into this tinderbox is a town resident who seems to agree in principle with the anti-abortion activists, but who strongly objects to their methodology—particularly their use of placards (picturing enlarged and dismembered fetuses) in a school zone. “The Bible says not to judge,” she tells them. “You keep pointing a finger. This is not helping.” After she walks away, the reaction is, “She’s an overprotective mom who doesn’t want her kids seeing posters of torn apart babies.”

It is forty-four minutes before the viewer meets Candace and Arnold, the wife and husband who run the abortion clinic. The previous unrelenting rhetoric and ominous background music create a claustrophobic tension, giving an inkling of what the women seeking services are enduring. Up until this point, our only exposure to Arnold is seeing him driving the doctor (whose identity is shielded by a white sheet over his head) to and from the clinic in his yellow Mustang. Candace is pictured looking out from her orange-painted establishment through window blinds, monitoring the activity on the sidewalk.

The faces of the girls and women that Candace counsels are not shown. A 46-year-old with health issues discusses her concern about being able to take care of a child at her age. Candace asks her, “Do you have any doubts? I want to make sure this is what you need to do.” She advises another woman—who confides, “I don’t have a good life” and appears beaten down by her partner’s sexual demands—that she cannot have sex without using condoms or birth control pills.

The young girl—in session with Anne before realizing that she was in the wrong place—tells Candace, “They made me watch this very gruesome video.” Candace discovers that Anne has misinformed the girl about the timeline of her pregnancy. Believing that she is at seven weeks, two days, Candace gently tells her that she is actually at ten weeks. After the girl leaves Candace says, “They lie to patients about how far along they are, because clinics go to ten to twelve weeks, and that’s it.”

Candace’s rhetorical questions to Anne and her organization are, “Why are you messing up these girl’s lives? Why are your playing around with them like that?” As an afterthought she says dispiritedly, “I feel like crying today.”

Earlier, Anne is seen at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. At this juncture she announces to her opponents, “You can not outlast us.” Before the final credits roll, the audience learns that there are currently 4,000 pro-life centers in the United States, and 816 abortion clinics.

The filmmakers have offered up a valuable source of insights into the trench warfare on this topic. However, a resolution doesn’t seem to be in the offing any time soon." (From cultureid.com)

Many discussions on the Internet have discussed the film and the sordid history of "crisis pregnancy" centers. Ariel Dougherty has put together this great list of background links and pro-choice resources. She suggests:

Charlotte Taft talks about 12th and Delaware in the context of her own experience running a pro-choice clinic immediately across from an anti-choice CPC.

Amanda Marcotte talked about crisis preg-nancy centers this spring.

Another excellent piece on CPC, Kathryn Joyce, published in The Nation last year.

Melissa Silverstein in Women and Hollywood.

Steph Herold in the Abortion Gang.

Therese Shechter wrote a response to the problems with the film and the use of Cinema Verite.

And to her list, add:
Unmasking Fake Clinics by Alexa Cole.

In addition, interviews with the filmmakers can be seen on Vimeo, and HBO is already selling DVDs for $20.

What's your opinion? Tell us at wordsofchoice@mindspring.com

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pictured above: Screen shot from HBO announcement.

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