MTV Accused of Pro-Abortion Agenda After Pulling Ad
MTV pulled a pro-life media group’s newly launched ad campaign off the air earlier this month, prompting accusations that the music channel harbors a pro-abortion agenda.
Heroic Media announced its “We Can Help” campaign on April 30 at a fundraising event headlined by Sarah Palin. The commercials encourage women with unexpected pregnancies to reach out for information and support.
The advertisements began on schedule on May 2, but after just one airing, MTV – which broadcasts the reality show “16 and Pregnant” – yanked them off the air. Though the ads were scheduled to run on the network throughout the month of May, MTV announced on May 5 the decision to stop showing the commercials.
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“Those exact same ads with the exact same verbiage have aired on MTV in the past,” Heroic Media representative Marissa Gabrysch noted to The Christian Post.
According to a press release last week from Heroic Media, an MTV sales representative told the Austin, Texas-based Christian non-profit that MTV president Stephen Friedman decided to pull the ads based on a conflict of interest with the network’s partnership with Planned Parenthood.
MTV denied that its dealings with Planned Parenthood affected the choice to pull the commercials.
The network claimed that ads were axed to separate the network from a recent controversial billboard campaign by a group tied to Heroic Media. The group, Life Always, rented a billboard in New York that stated, “The Most Dangerous Place for an African-American is in the Womb.” The ad was based on New York City Health Department statistics that show a 59.8 percent abortion rate among African Americans, but some decried the billboard as racist.
Jeannie Kedas, the senior vice president of MTV Networks, said in a statement, “Upon further review, it was hard for us to separate some of the recent tactics of the organization behind the ads themselves, so we have opted to not accept them for air at this time.”
Still, Heroic Media and other conservative groups are taking MTV’s decision as proof of a pro-abortion inclination.
Lila Rose, president of pro-life organization Live Action, told Fox News, “I think it’s a very disturbing, shocking decision for MTV to pull a commercial that is meant to provide real options for women,” she said. “MTV seems to be aligning itself with radical pro-abortion ideology.”
Despite the roadblock created by MTV’s decision, ads similar to those pulled from MTV are still running on BET, an African-American interest network. Gabrysch said Heroic Media remains committed to airing “positive call-for-help messages.”
“We will continue to look for opportunities to get our message out there to the people in need of our help,” Gabrysch said.
