Birthright, the internationally renowned pregnancy counseling service, has been denounced by The Varsity, the University of Toronto’s subsidized student newspaper. The Varsity will no longer carry Birthright ads because the ads did not specify the service was pro-life and because Birthright does not provide abortion referrals.

The rejected ad was innocuous:  “Somewhere along the way, you may be pregnant and need help.  Reach for hope.  Call Birthright.  Your life is precious.”

Birthright had its ads pulled from both the U of T student handbook and the classified section of the Varsity.  Birthright considered the Varsity’s September 9th editorial, “Why we no longer accept ads from Birthright” libelous, Birthright wrote a rebuttal, September 12, but the Birthright wrote a rebuttal, September 12, but The Varsity would not print it.

A rival, independent campus-wide publication the newspaper, which does carry Birthright ads, printed Birthright’s letter to The Varsity, with a tongue-in cheek comment, “in case they had accidently misplace their copy,”  Moreover, the newspaper ran an editorial September 18, entitled, “Vacuous Varsity Veriage.”

There is unwavering student support for Birthright: 47 students from across the campus, a record number, volunteered as potential counselors, even before the controversy erupted.

Birthright has a 28-year history and 550 chapters world wide.  Its ads are run daily in the personal section of The Toronto Star and The Toronto Sun. The T.T.C. and the Yellow Pages also carry them.

The Varsity claimed that if it ran ads for Birthright then “women end up at a so-called counseling service that does not provide them with their options.  A woman may be manipulated into accepting the narrow political agenda of a complete stranger.”  The service results in, “coercing a woman into a situation in which her right over her own body is denied.”

Varsity officials admitted that, “Birthright has helped many women by providing them with emotional and maternal support during their pregnancies and even after they have children.  We think this aspect of the service is beneficial but it by no means excuses their manipulative advertising (which made no mention of their pro-life stance) or refusal to provide unconditional support to all women, even those who chose abortion.”

“Publications are indirectly endorsing a product or service when they decide to sell it advertising space.”  The Varsity did not women to be “unfairly coerced by false advertising or manipulative political agendas.”

Birthright replied in a letter The Varsity refused to print (but which was published in the newspaper). The fact that Birthright does not give abortion referrals does not, by definition make it coercive.  Birthright is honest about its prolife stand and in fact by its charter prohibits its volunteers from using any force or scare tactics or other coercion to persuade a woman to carry a pregnancy to term.

“Birthright ads have been scrutinized again and again by the Toronto media (including the TTC) and have been found to be non-controversial and well within the acceptable standards of advertising…The use of the term “coercive is libelous…The fact that Birthright is pro-life does not diminish the service it provides.  To suggest otherwise is libelous.  WE demand that any suggestion that Birthright is not a legitimate service provider be retracted.

“If a woman ultimately chooses abortion, Birthright does not reject her.  While we disagree with her, we continue to offer her friendship and support and any other help she may need (except an abortion referral).  Thousands of women have returned to a Birthright office following an abortion.

The newspaper noted that The Varsity purports that the reason for pulling the ad, “was not the issue of abortion but the right of an individuals to “independently decide the fact of their own bodies”-essentially the pro-choice stance.”

The newspaper noted that The Varsity in its October 23, 1995 issue, had no qualms, running an ad for Students Edge, which sells ready-made essays.  “Did not the service violate U of T bylaws with respect to plagiarism?