College ad censorship draws anti-abortion ire
by Beth Mueller ¦ Badger Herald ¦ 12 March 2008 An anti-abortion group complained Tuesday that three Wisconsin college newspapers had rejected its advertisements. Pro-Life Wisconsin said its ads were submitted to and rejected by the Marquette University Tribune, the UW-Stout Stoutonia and the UW-La Crosse Racquet. “Be good to yourself over spring break,” the ad reads. “Make smart choices the night before … that way you won’t have any emergencies to deal with the morning after!” It also says emergency contraception is a powerful, high dose of steroids that “tricks a woman’s body into thinking it is pregnant” and can cause “chemical abortions and deadly blood clots.” According to professor William Thorn, chairman of the board for Marquette University Student Media, the advertisements were “a topic of considerable discussion,” reaching up the chain of command to the board. Thorn said some topics, including abortion, are automatically red-flagged in advertising, requiring review. “I think if it had come in a day earlier, under deadline, we may have been able to resolve this,” Thorn said. He added the students had objected to the term “chemical abortion,” though he had been concerned with the “unsubstantiated” medical claim about blood clots. “The advertising space closed before I could really get the kind of information and resolution I would have needed,” Thorn said. According to UW-La Crosse Racquet Editor in Chief Andrea Wilson, that paper is not finished considering the ad either. “In the past we have had issues on campus with advertisements of this nature, so we are taking our time in discussions about whether we should run it, but we have never said we wouldn’t run this ad,” Wilson said. Members of the UW-Stout Stoutonia staff were not available for comment as of press time. Pro-Life Wisconsin said the ads were rejected because of the papers’ viewpoints. “College newspapers have always fashioned themselves as supporting free speech more than any other newspaper, but it seems like it’s only free speech for the message they want to put out,” said Virginia Zignego, communications director for the group. The Badger Herald, the UW-Superior Stinger and papers from UW-Platteville and UW-Milwaukee were among publications to accept the ads. Zignego also complained that colleges have encouraged use of emergency contraception in the past. “In 2005, UHS ran an ad urging students to prepare for spring break by stocking up on emergency contraception,” Zignego said. | 
