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Google forced to accept anti-abortion advertising

Google has been forced to abandon its ban on religious organisations placing anti-abortion ads on its site after it was sued by a pro-life charity.

Google settled out of court with The Christian Institute, a UK-based non-denominational charity, yesterday and will now allow religious groups to place factual and campaigning ads about abortion. The new policy will apply world-wide with immediate effect.

The Christian Institute wanted to advertise with Google by paying so that when the word "abortion" was typed into the search engine, a link to a web page on its views would pop up on the right-hand side of the screen.

The link reading "UK abortion law - news and views on abortion from the Christian Institute" would enable users to click on it to access the institute's website. The institute had hoped to advertise its online articles on pro-life issues ahead of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill being debated in the House of Commons this summer.

However, Google refused to display the ad in March because its policy banned the advertising of sites that mixed "abortion and religion-related content".

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