United Press International
Basking Ridge, N.J. – Verizon Wireless, based in Basking Ridge, N.J., has reversed a decision to disallow an abortion rights group from using its network for a text message program.
A company spokesman said Thursday the earlier decision had been a mistake and the mobile network will be made available to abortion rights group Naral Pro-Choice America, The New York Times reported.
“The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident,” company spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said in a statement.
“It was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy,” he said. “That policy, developed before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages, was designed to ward against communications such as anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children.”
Nelson said text messaging is “harnessed by organizations and individuals communicating their diverse opinions about issues and topics” and Verizon has “great respect for this free flow of ideas.”
The Naral program, which has been accepted by other wireless carriers, allows interested parties to sign up for text messages from the organization by sending a message to a five-digit number, the Times said.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International