CUPERTINO, California (LifeSiteNews) — Apple banned a pro-life mobile application after abortion supporters complained, even though the app was approved and previously offered on its App Store.
Human Coalition (HC) created a mobile app that sends prayer alerts to intercessors and church groups.
“Human Coalition’s prayer app is a platform where pro-life advocates can gather together in prayer for abortion-determined women and their children and families,” HC’s public relations director Lauren Enriquez told LifeSiteNews. “Our supporters have found the app helpful in their mission to extend all forms of support, including prayer support, to the women and children we serve and rescue.”
The app, launched in 2014 for both Apple and Android phones, sends anonymous, real-time information about women who call crisis pregnancy centers considering abortion so that pro-lifers can pray for them.
One of the top five “Must-Have Pro-Life Apps” according to the American Life League, the HC app alerts prayer warriors with messages such as “pray for someone in Texas who just placed a call to inquire about abortion,” or “who scheduled an appointment with a Colorado pregnancy resource center.” The app suggests that Christians pray for women to keep pro-life appointments and to choose life for their baby.
Human Coalition culls anonymous information from its women’s care centers in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Raleigh, North Carolina, along with its connections at more than 30 centers across America. The app encourages intercessors with real-time results, noting how many people are praying using the app and how many women the user has prayed for that have chosen to give birth.
“Let’s pray our way to ending abortion in America,” the app’s web launch states.
Abortion activists took notice. In June and July, media attacks on Human Coalition exploded. The “hit pieces and podcasts” mocked the idea of praying for women considering abortion.
Critical media also falsely claimed the HC app revealed women’s identities, even though no user is given any personal information. Despite 100 percent anonymity, the Slate’s Christina Cauterucci accused Human Coalition of violating people’s privacy.
Cauterucci called the prayer app “bizarre” and went to great lengths to ridicule both the app and its developers. The New Statesman’s Amelia Tait joined in, questioning the efficacy of “ridiculous … digital anti-abortion prayers.”
In July, the tech giant ripped the app out of its App Store.
Human Coalition noted that Apple caved to the pro-abortion media ridicule. “On the heels of pro-abortion media pushback, Apple notified us that they had removed the Human Coalition app from the App Store, citing violations of certain functionality requirements,” an HC statement said. “However, Human Coalition spoke with Apple and demonstrated that not only were the cited requirements met but that the Human Coalition app exceeded minimum requirements and functioned better than similar apps from other developers.”
Human Coalition added that Apple wouldn’t specify how they could make the app acceptable. In fact, Apple refused to reconsider offering the app unless HC “completely overhaul(ed) the app — a cost-prohibitive and unnecessary demand.”
After Apple censored the app, pro-abortionists stepped up their campaign against Human Coalition. Well-publicized protests were organized against HC.
Human Coalition responded to the product censorship in a statement. “Censorship of pro-life voices is a growing trend in the United States,” HC said in response. “Pro-abortion media, for their part, have demonstrated time and again their willingness to reinforce bogus and false narratives about pro-life Americans, going so far as to try to bully pro-life voices into silence.”
“For all the mocking and deriding pro-lifers get from pro-abortion groups for being backward, stupid, etc, they sure do seem to put a lot of effort into making sure no one gets a whiff of pro-life points,” Red State’s Brandon Morse noted. “If pro-abortion groups are that dismissive of pro-life ideas and research, why do they fight so hard to silence it instead of openly debating the facts?”
“Corporations are cowards who would sooner bend to the whims of political activist groups than stand on the principle of free speech, and their self-professed love of diversity,” Morse commented.
Apple has revealed its liberal, pro-abortion bias numerous times. After riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, CEO Tim Cook announced his company’s $1 million plus two-for-one matching donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which labels pro-marriage and family organizations “hate groups.”
“So Apple is donating to a radical leftist group that some believe had a hand in inspiring violence, and now they’re removing pro-life apps because leftist groups are unhappy with there being anything in the app store that might run contrary to their very strict, pro-abortion narrative,” Morse charged.
“Apple must now answer the question: Which is it? Are you politically biased, are you cowardly, or are you both?”
Human Coalition counsel Colin LeCroy explained the uniqueness of HC’s ministry is seeking to reach women who have decided to abort their baby. “The average crisis pregnancy center sees about 239 abortion-vulnerable women per year, only 22 of whom are said to be abortion-minded,” LeCroy said. “An average Human Coalition care center will see 563 women, 542 of whom who stated that they planned to get an abortion.”
Concerned citizens may contact Apple regarding their pro-life product censorship here.