Truth in advertising of pregnancy counselling services

CHILDREN BY CHOICE ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED

Stop Deceiving Women Now!

Children by Choice has been working with Reproductive Choice Australia and the online campaign group Get Up to push for legislation to protect women from misleading and deceptive advertising by some anti-choice pregnancy counselling services.

www.getup.org.au/campaign/JoinVoicesForTransparency

A women's capacity to make an informed decision about an unplanned pregnancy, and access support for her decision making, is compromised when she cannot clearly identify the nature of the organisation in their advertising and promotional material. Many clients of Children by Choice regularly report that they called counselling agencies that they did not realise were anti-choice and were distressed by the false and misleading information they received. For example women considering abortion

Currently there is a cross-party Bill before the Senate that would ensure that pregnancy counselling services have to advertise truthfully. This Bill is sponsored by 4 brave women from the Democrats, Greens, Liberal and Labor parties. Unfortunately the major parties - Liberal and Labor - have not committed to supporting the Bill. We need you to voice your support now for the Bill.

Please contact these key decision-makers now. They have the power to ensure that this Bill to succeed. As well, below you will find some key points you can make.

Labor Shadow Health Minister Nicola Roxon
Phone: (03) 9687 7355
Fax: (03) 9689 6523
Email: Nicola.Roxon.MP@aph.gov.au

Liberal Health Minister Tony Abbott
Phone: (02) 9977 6411
Fax: (02) 9977 8715
Email: Tony.Abbott.MP@aph.gov.au

Please report back their response, via emailing campaigns@getup.org.au.

Please write a letter to your local paper. You can do this easily by going to

www.getup.org.au/campaign/JoinVoicesForTransparency

A FEW TALKING POINTS:

It's just fair and commonsense to extend to pregnant women the same protections from deceptive advertising all Australians consumers expect. The Pregnancy Couselling (Truth in Advertising) Bill 2006 was introduced into Parliament in January, co-sponsored by Senators Natasha Stott-Despoja (Democrats), Judith Troeth (Liberal), Carol Brown (Labor) and Kerry Nettle (Greens) to do just that.

What it does:

-Respects every organisation's right to counsel as they choose.
-Respects every individual's right to choose what service they contact.
-Requires all agencies to disclose in their advertising whether or not they refer for termination of pregnancy.

What it doesn’t do:

-Compel agencies to refer for abortion or face fines.
-Deny public funding to organisations that don’t refer for abortion.
-Deny women the information they need to make an informed choice.

-A national study has found 81% of women believe pregnancy counselling services should be able to refer clients to all options: parenthood, adoption or termination. Without transparency, we don't know if the new Pregnancy Helpline will do this or not.

-The lack of regulation is especially unfair to women in difficult circumstances, such as those who must travel long distances to meet with a counsellor. Even the police have been confused about where to refer victims of sexual assault.

-The call for transparency has never been more timely, with Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott's $15.5 million Pregnancy Helpline launching on May 1.

Want more more information on this issue? Children by Choice's submission to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee enquiry into pregnancy counselling service advertising is available for download.