Canada Pro-Life Group Sees Fredericton Officials Discriminate on Abortion Ads 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 25, 2008
Fredericton, Canada (LifeNews.com) — A pro-life New Brunswick group is up in arms after Fredericton officials prohibited it from placing advertisements against abortion inside bus shelters. New Brunswick Right to Life says the city is discriminating against it by allowing other advertisers to appear on the shelters but not their ads asking people to rethink their abortion views.
The ads in question are professional-looking and non-graphic and feature the tag line, "Abortion. Have we gone too far?"
They were created by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops under a campaign called the Second Look Project.
"The human heart begins to beat 22 days after conception. Currently in Canada, that heartbeat can be stopped up until birth. No medical reason needed," the ads read.
Peter Ryan, executive director of the pro-life group, told the Daily Gleaner newspaper, "We think we’re picked upon and not held to a standard that is fair."
"We think it’s discriminatory, it’s repressive and we’re going to fight it," he added. "These ads are very tasteful, but it’s just because they mention the abortion word that some people think, ‘No, we’re just not even going to allow any kind of public discussion or debate about it.’"
Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside defended the city’s decision to prohibit the ads and he told the newspaper that they invite controversy that the city doesn’t want to start. He claims pro-abortion ads wouldn’t be accepted either.
"We don’t want to bring that divisiveness to a public space where people are coming to wait for a bus," he said.
This isn’t the first time the ads have had issues.
Abortion advocates destroyed similar ads that appeared on hundreds of BART public transportation system trains in San Francisco in 2006.
The ads begin appearing on 280 BART trains and in 48 BART stations on the day after Christmas and the Respect Life Ministry of the Oakland Diocese paid just over $43,000 for the ads.
ACTION: Send your comments on the discrimination to Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside at P.O. Box 130, Fredericton, NB, E3B 4Y7, Canada. Phone (506) 460-2085, Fax: 506-460-2134. You can send an email by going to https://www.fredericton.ca/en/directories.asp.
Related web sites:
New Brunswick Right to Life – https://www.nbrighttolife.ca
Second Look Project – https://www.secondlookproject.org
