A 2008 Ad Standards ruling said, “the Canadian Government has not, through legislation or otherwise, declared that abortions were either legal or illegal.”
In 2018 they said: “binding Canadian law that permits abortion in Canada does, in fact, currently exist.”
But nothing has changed legally in between those two rulings…
This afternoon we received the much-anticipated ruling from Ad Standards ruling against our simple billboard stating, “Canada has no abortion law.” If you read the above quotes and thought they were contradictory, you are right – Ad Standards has ruled against itself!
The decision that our billboard contravenes the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards calls into question Advertising Standards Canada (ASC)’s ability to make impartial decisions based on facts and evidence. As we’ve shared with you in past communications, ASC, a self-regulating body that enforces the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, was asked to rule on the billboard after complaints were submitted with encouragement from the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada – a pro-abortion activist organization.
Tabitha Ewert, legal counsel for We Need a Law was quick to point out that, “This decision is one in a series of rulings over the years that seem to show a willingness to be used by abortion activists to censor pro-life organizations.”
You, our faithful supporters, have invested heavily in this billboard campaign. It was with your help that we entered into a contract with Pattison Outdoor to install over thirty billboards across Canada this summer. The message that Canada has no abortion law is one that needs to get out in the public; polls indicate that up to 77% of Canadians are unaware that Canada has no abortion laws. There is no federal or provincial law, or provincial college policy, that regulates abortion.
This message that Canada has no abortion laws is one frequently touted by abortion activists. Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, said proudly earlier this year, “We are the only country in the world (besides China) with no abortion law.” https://www.canadianatheist.com/2018/02/arthur/
In fact, prior to putting up these billboards, a representative from We Need a Law called the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Ontario to clarify what abortion regulations they had in place. They were quick to point out that, “The CPSO doesn’t have a policy about abortion.” We received similar confirmation from the College in Nova Scotia.
Please know that today’s ruling will not impact the billboard campaign as the last signs are scheduled to come down on September 30th. We have been given until October 4th to appeal this decision, and it is our intention to do so.
So you may wonder why this is necessary as the billboard campaign is nearly expired anyway.
The reason is that we can no longer sit idly by while various ruling bodies – whether government, or self-regulatory – continue to censor the pro-life message. If this ruling stands, it does not bode well for We Need a Law, or any other groups who want to display pro-life advertising. In other words, we need to exercise all our opportunities to right this wrong decision.
The fact that ASC has been inconsistent in their rulings shows an organization heavily influenced by activist pressure rather than the neutral self-regulatory body they purport to be. In the past they ruled against a pro-life ad for suggesting there was a law, and now they are ruling against our message because we are saying there is no law! It is our hope and prayer that they will recognize their error and be willing to correct it.
This summer we are running a national billboard campaign that has garnered a lot of attention, both positive and negative. Funded by our grassroots supporters, the goal of our simple billboard message is to take the abortion debate back to the basics. Polls show that the vast majority of Canadians are unaware that Canada has no abortion law. In fact, most are quite convinced there IS a law. With a name like “We Need a Law” this obviously makes discussions pretty challenging for our organization so, first things first, we need to set the record straight.
Abortion has been legal in Canada since 1969. In 1988, all remaining restrictions were struck from the Criminal Code. The Supreme Court justices made it very clear that they were striking an unconstitutionally obstructive law in the assumption that Parliament would craft a new one.
Parliament did not, and so Canada is the only democracy in the world to have no law regarding abortion. We even have a section in the Criminal Code stating that a child gains the rights of a person “when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.” This means that the status quo on abortion extends far beyond the crisis pregnancy situation most people picture when they think of abortion. This means that when a pregnant woman is murdered, her child is not considered a victim, no matter how far along she was in her pregnancy. It means parents who find out they’re expecting a girl when they’d rather have a boy, can (and do) request and receive an abortion.
This is the status quo in Canada.
Abortion rights advocates are calling for the removal of the billboard ads and recruiting people to complain. A lawyer called the ad “misleading” while at the same time admitting that Canada has no abortion laws. This is a message abortion activists have been using for years, but they are upset to hear us say the same thing, and clearly flummoxed on how to debunk their own claim. Joyce Arthur, spokesperson for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, has taken many opportunities to tout the fact that Canada has no abortion law, and their website declares this clearly. And yet, she describes the ad with words like, “demeaning, discriminatory and degrading.”
What is demeaning is to think women, or anyone, want anything less than the truth.
The reaction to our simple billboard tells us a lot about where the abortion debate stands, and affirms the need for this return to the basics. What we really want is for people to get past the polarizing rhetoric and think. Think of the last pregnancy you witnessed, whether it was your own, your friend’s, your partner’s, your neighbour, your employee, your sister, your daughter, or the cashier at your grocery store. At what point was that child worthy of protection? Would the mother agree with your perspective? What is it about wantedness that gives value to a human life? What about the women who grew up in poverty and abuse and keep hearing the message that they would have been better off aborted?
This debate gets personal fast, as evidenced by some of the shocking, ugly messages sent our way over the past weeks in response to these billboards. But if this ad is unacceptable, what ad on abortion would be acceptable? We should be able to challenge opinions and question the status quo without hateful backlash and fearful censorship. How will we grow, debate, change, and develop in an environment that shuts down controversial debate? We can all drive past billboards selling us burgers, trucks, and vacations, but not a billboard that challenges us?
We are better than that.
This ad takes it back to the basics. It doesn’t offer solutions, it doesn’t address the myriad social structural failures we need to address. It simply asks people to think about whether they are ok with this status quo. If they are not, we’d love to join with them in starting somewhere, for women and pre-born children, because human rights should apply to all human beings.
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