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CENSORED: Facebook Bans Pro-Life Ads Featuring Babies Who Survived Being Born Prematurely

October 26, 2018

Facebook rejected and removed a pro-life group’s election advertisements featuring the stories of two babies that survived premature births because they contain video footage of ultrasounds and photos of the preemies.

National pro-life advocacy organization The Susan B. Anthony List – which knocked on over 2 million doors nationwide this year to drive turnout for the 2018 midterms – posted the email received from Facebook on the organization’s official Twitter account where the social media giant claimed the photos being used were too “sensational or graphic.”

In a series of tweets, Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) broke the situation down:

“Here’s the email from Facebook claiming the photo of Charlotte used in the ad is too ‘sensational or graphic'”

The email reads in part:

“We don’t allow ads that depict medical procedures or conditions (ex: surgeries, open wounds, injections.) The reason behind our policies: “We don’t allow ads that feature sensational or graphic content (even if it’s for an artistic or education reason) because of their highly sensitive nature.”

In a pair of subsequent tweets in the same thread, the SBA List posted the censored ad, along with the review from Facebook saying the company determined “it doesn’t comply with our Advertising Policies,” and that the ad would not be active until SBA List edited it “to comply with policy.”:

“Here’s the ad telling Micah’s story that Facebook has chosen to censor:”

In one of the video ads, you hear the success story of Micah Pickering, who was born at just 22 weeks of gestation. His mother, Danielle Pickering, says in the video that anyone who says that “a baby at 20 weeks doesn’t have a right to live” should come see Micah. The video closes out with the narrator saying that Iowa’s Democrat candidate for governor, Fred Hubbell, “supports painful late-term abortions” and is “just to extreme for Iowa.”

The second video (seen in the tweet below) also features the success story of a child born prematurely. The video shows Ned Ryun, father of Charlotte Ryun, who was born at 24 weeks of gestation, saying that those who are “advocating late-term abortions” should “look” at Charlotte. The narrator at the end of the ad says, “Unborn babies deserve protection. Vote pro-life in November.”

In the 30 second “Charlotte” ad, one scene features a doctor pointing to an ultrasound machine, with another scene featuring a photo of a very tiny newborn Charlotte in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), just barely being able to hold onto the tip of her father’s finger.

The “Micah” ad had already been running on Facebook for 13 days before administrators removed the advertisement with little explanation, according to SBA List. The “Micah” ad also featured photos of the small newborn inside of a NICU.

The Susan B. Anthony List Vice President for Communications, Mallory Quigley stated on Thursday that the organization has appealed Facebook’s decisions on their advertisements and said the “Micah” video advertisement has been reinstated, but did not know about the status of the “Charlotte” video.

When it comes to ads and Facebook, the company takes a lot more editorial control over what ads they will allow to run versus what content they will allow a standard user to post.

Facebook’s “sensational content” advertising policy states: “Ads must not contain shocking, sensational, disrespectful or excessively violent content.”

“Facebook is censoring our campaign, slowing us down in the final days ahead of the [Nov. 6] election,” Quigley told The Washington Free Beacon.

This is not the first time Facebook, along with other social media platforms like Twitter have faced accusations that they are censoring pro-life content and advertisements.

In 2017, Twitter blocked a pro-life group from placing ads that showed babies in gestation on the grounds that the ads violated Twitter’s “hate and sensitive policy.”

Earlier this year, Facebook placed, and later lifted a ban on paid ads promoting a pro-life film that was produced by Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece.

The Human Coalition, a pro-life non-profit, also had issues with Twitter earlier this year when the platform banned its ads.

“While Twitter, for example, allows Planned Parenthood to promote abortion and publish other offensive content unchecked, Human Coalition has been repeatedly blocked and stalled from running truthful content that is in-line with Twitter’s own policies,” Human Coalition co-founder Brian Fisher said. “Likewise, after backlash from abortion activists, Apple removed Human Coalition’s pro-life prayer app from its App Store without warning.”

Several social conservative organizations say they’re not looking to compel any group, rather they are asking companies like Facebook and Twitter to live up to their values as open social media platforms.

Vice President of the watchdog group Media Research Center told Washington Free Beacon that social media companies have mishandled cultural debates by choosing sides.

“The pro-life side simply isn’t treated the same as the pro-abortion side,” he said in an email. “Facebook, in particular, needs to back off its restrictions on issue ads on topics like abortion. We don’t want them to limit speech. We want them to allow it.”

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