Ontario pro-life groups plan media blitz

By Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

Ontario's pro-life educational groups plan to launch a major media campaign against abortion hoping to repeat the huge success of previous TV commercials.

Under the umbrella of Alliance for Life Ontario, these groups have begun raising money to buy time for what they hope will be the biggest educational effort against abortion in the province's history.

Alliance for Life Ontario ran its first campaign in 2000, running TV messages created by the Vitae Caring Foundation on several major networks for seven weeks. The messages encouraged women facing a crisis pregnancy to contact a 24-hour national helpline.

As a result, calls to the helpline increased by 600 per cent.

During the second campaign, held from January to April 2003, the increases were even more dramatic.

Calls to the helpline increased 8,200 per cent from the 416 area code around Toronto, 775 per cent from the 705 area code; 682 per cent from the 905 area code, and 243 per cent in the 519 area.

In the 614 area code including Kingston-Ottawa area, where budget restrictions led to fewer ads, the calls increased by 153 per cent.

In northern Ontario, where Alliance for Life was unable to place ads, the calls decreased by 67 per cent.

A third campaign from mid-February to mid-June 2005, saw large increases in helpline calls.

Alliance for Life reports abortion rates in Missouri and Wisconsin, which have run these messages the longest, have dropped by 35 to 45 per cent.

With more than 38,000 abortions in Ontario, Alliance for Life predicts the TV messages could save the lives of 12,000 unborn children and protect their mothers from the after-effects of the procedure.

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