Media

May 2011: Abortion, We’ve Gone too Far!

This ad (left) was placed in the Hamilton Spectator on May 12, 2011 to commemorate the anniversary of the day the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s 1969 abortion law. To see the full size image go here.

March 2008: New advertisement highlights 40 years of legal abortion

Hamilton Right To Life and Halton Pro-Life have developed a newspaper advertisement to appear in The Hamilton Spectator on May 14, the day of the March For Life. The ad graphically shows the stages of development of a child in the womb under a heading of  “FORTY YEARS LATER”, highlighting the  40 years since legal protection for the unborn was diminished.

The advertisement was designed graphically by Camilla Gunnarson, a past board member of Hamilton Right to Life and a past president of Halton Pro-Life, who now works with Alliance for Life Ontario.

HRTL’s bus ad tours the city

Hamilton Right To Life’s advertisement “Abortion, Have We Gone Too Far?” is now being displayed on the city buses and has been seen downtown, around the busy Gore Park, along Barton Street past the Hamilton General Hospital and on the Mountain.

This success has been achieved by the Board after several set-backs during past years.  See story below published in LifesiteNews (included here with permission).

Hamilton Right to Life Wins Ad Battle – Pro Life Ads Are Back on Buses and Shelters

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
May 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The city of Hamilton Ontario has decided to lift a ban on pro-life posters on its buses and transit shelters.

The decision was a result of a human rights complaint file by Hamilton Right to Life last year, stating that the city violated the right to freedom of expression and denied equal treatment and the right to contract on equal terms because of discrimination against its position on abortion.
Hamilton Right to Life intends to drop its human rights complaint, which was scheduled for a hearing in July, now that the city of Hamilton has revised its rules so as to allow pro-life advertisements to be displayed in city buses, transit shelters and other similar city-owned advertising spots, according to a Hamilton Spectator report.

The original ads, which were part of a nation-wide pro-life campaign coordinated by Life Canada, depicted a pregnant woman. At the top of the ad were the words, “Nine months: the length of time abortion is allowed in Canada. No medical reason needed.” At the bottom of the ad is the question, “Abortion, have we gone too far?”

Advertising Standards Canada (ASC), a self-regulating body of Canada’s advertising industry, ruled last year that these ads were “deceptive,” despite evidence from Statistics Canada confirming the truth of the message the ad gives and a ruling from the Supreme Court, which shows that there are no laws against abortion in Canada.

Hamilton Right to Life board member Father Ted Slaman said the group changed the wording of its ads to meet the guidelines set by the ASC.

The ad now reads: “The Human heart begins to beat 21 days after conception. Currently in Canada that heartbeat can be stopped up until birth. No medical reason needed. Abortion. Have we gone too far?”

Fr. Slaman said the ads have been approved by the ASC and that he is hoping for a response from Hamilton Transit.

“We would have liked an apology or, perhaps, a bit of an acknowledgement from the city that it was wrong … but nobody has been willing to this point to do anything like that,” Fr. Slaman said.

To see the original LifeSiteNews report and links to earlier coverage, click here.