Another legal win for pro-life advertising
Early in 2024, our parent organization, ARPA Canada, launched a legal challenge against the city of St Catharines’ bylaw targeting pro-life advertising. The Bylaw to Regulate the Delivery of Graphic Images had been unanimously approved in 2023 by St. Catharines City Council. This summer, six months into the litigation process, the city suddenly repealed the bylaw, ending the legal challenge just weeks before the scheduled court date.
So, what happened?
The bylaw being challenged required any ad with an image of a fetus (including ultrasound images) to be in a sealed envelope with a graphic content warning printed on the outside. Whoever delivered such a flyer would also be required to have their name and address on the envelope. While claiming to be a graphic image bylaw, the bylaw addressed no other forms of explicit or graphic ad content, only images of pre-born children.
A bylaw like this could affect our ability to distribute We Need a Law materials, which often include an ultrasound image. Life many pro-life advocates, we see the use of fetal imagery as critically important to our mission of changing hearts and minds on the issue of abortion. A simple and familiar ultrasound image immediately illustrates the humanity of the unborn.
Thankfully, targeting a single point of view in this way is unconstitutional. Cities have a responsibility to uphold citizens’ Charter rights, including the right to freedom of expression. In creating and approving this bylaw, the city of St. Catharines failed to adequately consider their duty to protect freedom of expression.
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of expression means all sides get to be heard, and citizens can decide for themselves which position they agree on. Silencing the pro-life voice suggests the pro-life view is not an appropriate view to hold – and that’s why this bylaw was worth challenging. When challenged to defend their bylaw in court, it appears the city came to the realization that it was indefensible.
City Council hasn’t given up on the idea of regulating graphic images, though. Council has asked its staff to find evidence of the negative effects of graphic images on citizens. But it will be hard to show how unexpectedly seeing ultrasound images would threaten people’s health. These are the same images that people share on social media feeds, with parents and grandparents, and post proudly on their fridge – hardly graphic images!
Niagara Reproductive Justice and the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada were leading advocates for the graphic image bylaw. These and other pro-choice groups try to get pro-life ads canceled by complaining (and encouraging others to complain) that they are misleading for implying that unborn children are human beings. Abortion advocates understand the value of ultrasound imagery just as much as we do and would rather these images not be seen for what they are: evidence of the beautiful humanity of pre-born children, a humanity that makes them deserving of the full protection of the law.