Abortion, Text Messaging and Free Speech

Verizon changes course on censoring text messages after it becomes the focus of a front-page article in the New York Times.

Like a lot of other advocacy groups, NARAL wanted to keep in touch with like-minded folk by allowing them to sign up for short text messages. But when the abortion-rights group talked to Verizon about setting up such a service, the telecom giant balked. Abortion is just too controversial to allow text messages about it on their network, Verizon decided.

Adam Liptak wrote about the text message ban in today's New York Times and within hours Verizon announced it was changing its policy to permit text messages from the abortion rights group, which after all, go only to those people who have signed up for them.

Liptak's article is well worth reading because it shows how certain rights--such as free speech--can get lost with the adoption of new technologies.