From LifeNews.com Mailing List (formerly Pro-Life Infonet Mailing List) - 2/26/99
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Radio Commercials Target Teens for Abortions

BOSTON -- Broadcasting commercials for early abortions on a radio station popular with younger teens is being likened to Joe Camel tobacco ads. The Joe Camel cartoon character was seen as a marketing campaign to get young people to smoke.

Radio station WJMN-FM in Waltham, Mass., a Boston suburb, has been airing commercials by Repro Associates, a Planned Parenthood-affiliated abortion facility in suburban Brookline, Mass., for a "new" abortion method. According to Arbitron ratings, which measure radio audiences, WJMN is the leader in the Boston market for listeners aged 12 to 17, dominating it daily from 3 p.m. to midnight.

"I can´t think of any case where an abortion ad has been placed in this kind of Joe Camel targeted way," said Glenn McGee, director of the University of Pennsylvania´s Program for Ethical Evaluation of Reproduction. ``There is no case, other than India, where the marketing of [abortion] is targeted at those younger than 18," he told the Boston Herald.

The newspaper said WJMN and Dr. Howard Silverman, a spokesman for Repro Associates, declined to comment.

Under Massachusetts law, women younger than 18 cannot get abortions without the consent of at least one parent or guardian or permission from a judge. The state Department of Public Health said the number of Massachusetts females younger than 17 who had abortions dropped from 3,758 in 1986 to 1,710 in 1995.

"Historically, [they] don´t advertise unless things get desperate," said McGee.

"This should [cause] worry because it represents a real abuse of the [abortion facility´s] responsibility to think first of the welfare of their patients, and second about their salaries," he said.

"It would probably be sending mixed messages. If you get pregnant, here´s a way to get rid of the baby fast, instead of sending a message of abstinence," said Leah Randolph-Bridwell, who has a 16-year-old daughter in high school.

Massachusetts Citizens for Life officials had not heard the commercials.

``Everybody gets all excited when the tobacco industry puts on ads about smoking cigarettes geared toward teen-agers," said Elinor Rafferty, president of the organization. ``With all the hullabaloo that goes on with the tobacco industry, I don´t hear a lot of outcries about this," she said.

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