Kansas City radio station 96.5, “The Buzz,” shut down an advertising campaign the station had contracted with Advice & Aid Pregnancy Centers after pro-abortion extremists from Planned Parenthood Great Plains took issue with the content of the ad.
The ad said, “Feeling scared? Depressed? Vulnerable? Is pregnancy making you feel that life is over? Advice and Aid Pregnancy Centers will help you regardless of your struggle. You have access to a 24-hour hotline, pregnancy tests, sonograms, peer counseling and STI testing, all free of charge. Advice & Aid Pregnancy Centers is here to support you as you make your decision. Advice & Aid Pregnancy Centers — serving families facing pregnancy before, during and after with compassion.”
An advertising sales representative from the Entercom-owned station had earlier contacted Advice and Aid about buying ads, says center executive director Ruth Tisdale.
“She did her homework. She knew our website inside and out,” Tisdale said. “Her boss came with her, and we were very open with them about what we do and how we do it and about what we are and what we’re not. They were thrilled that we would advertise on the station.”
The campaign was scheduled to run a total of 328 commercials on Saturdays and Sundays for several weeks, but the ad aired only on May 12 and 13. Before the campaign had even gotten off the ground, a local Planned Parenthood affiliate, part of the nation’s largest abortion provider, objected. Its staffers took to social media asking the radio station to pull the ads.
Planned Parenthood stated on its Facebook page, “Advice and Aid, an anti-choice extremist group that operates under the guise of a health center, is now advertising on 96.5 The Buzz, KC’s alternative radio station. Let’s help The Buzz understand why Advice & Aid is dangerous for their listeners. Tell the radio station to reject these advertising dollars.”
Disappointed to hear the deceptive crisis pregnancy center advertising on @965TheBuzz. Shame on you.
— Bonyen Lee-Gilmore (@Bonyen_Lee) May 14, 2017
The misinformation continued…“@965TheBuzz: You should know Advice and Aid shames women out of abortion and is not a medical practice,” one Planned Parenthood Great Plains tweet reads.
.@965TheBuzz: You should know Advice and Aid shames women out of abortion and is not a medical practice. https://t.co/Er0PC1Lj9j
— Planned Parenthood (@PPGreatPlains) May 14, 2017
To the contrary, Advice & Aid’s medical director is a board certified OB/Gyn. Its staff and volunteers include nurses and trained sonographers. Their large medical advisory group is comprised of an array of medical professionals. Advice and Aid staff also refers clients to medical professionals when necessary, similar to the Planned Parenthood approach to mammograms. Planned Parenthood has never offered mammograms in any of its facilities. Those facilities are not equipped or staffed to do so. Instead, they have to refer their clients out.
Although Tisdale was disappointed about the station’s abrupt decision to pull the ad campaign, she believes some on the radio station staff fought for Advice & Aid’s right to continue the ads. However, the campaign was ultimately removed, and the contract abruptly canceled.
Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, Planned Parenthood Great Plains Communications Director, was largely responsible for raising the stink about Advice and Aid’s ad campaign. She was interviewed by Buzz on-air personality Lazlo, host of “The Church of Lazlo,” for a podcast. The nine-minute segment was chock full of factual errors about Advice & Aid and contained the typical inaccurate list of talking points perpetrated by Planned Parenthood whenever they attempt to discredit the work of pregnancy resource centers. The only accurate fact Lee-Gilmore stated was that the two businesses are next door to each other.
“We know that 96.5 The Buzz is a card carrying member of Planned Parenthood and supports our work,” she told the show’s host, Lazlo. A request from Advice & Aid to address these issues was ignored by the station.
Lazlo, the on-air personality ultimately responsible for deciding to stop the ads, also did not respond to Tisdale’s gracious invitation to tour the Overland Park pregnancy resource center location and learn more about Advice & Aid.
“[The Advice & Aid] board believed that the station’s listeners are the exact audience we are trying to reach–women who need to know that there are multiple options out there. It’s unfortunate that our life-saving message is being censored by a few who fear having another point of view expressed,” Tisdale said.
Advice & Aid’s board has requested its money back. Managers from the station did not return phone calls from the Sentinel.
