Christian and other religious groups opposed to abortion were allowed to advertise on Google for the first time from today, after the search engine capitulated in the face of a legal challenge.

Google had banned pro-life religious groups from buying adverts against search terms such as “abortion” and “abortion help” but was forced to abandon its policy after it was accused of breaching equalities legislation.

The challenge was brought by the Christian Institute, a cross-denominational pressure group, who said that Google’s change of heart was an acknowledgement of the rights of everybody to hold an opinion on the subject.

Mike Judge from the Christian Institute said: “Google were taking adverts from pro-abortion groups, and our view is that was a free speech issue. What we want to do is set out the acts in a pretty factual and pretty sensible way”.

Google had been taken to court by the Christian Institute earlier in the year, arguing that its policy was in breach of the Equalities Act of 2006. Initially, Google said it would fight in the courts, but changed its mind over the summer. Its new policy applies globally.

Acknowledging that the issue of abortion was “an emotive subject”, Google said that it reconsidered its policy following the Christian Institute’s challenge, and said it would be “creating a level playing field and enabling religious associations to place ads on abortion in a factual way”.

However, it was unclear how Google would define the introduction of factual advertising, in an area where anti-abortion groups have been willing to use graphic images of aborted foetuses in an effort to make their point. The Christian Institute, taking a broader interpretation, said that Google’s new policy also amounted to allowing “campaigning ads”.

A spokesman for Marie Stopes International, which runs abortion treatment clinics, said the organisation was supportive of Google’s decision because both sides in the abortion debate should “be given equal opportunity to set out their arguments” but worried about the possibility of distortion.

“Where we draw the line when people use dodgy research or dodgy arguments to further their case — for example where people show images of 24 week old aborted foetuses and say they are in fact 12 weeks old”.

Mr Judge said that the Christian Institute — which took out its first Google adverts yesterday — were “not a group of headbangers, and would set out its position in a pretty factual, pretty sensible way”. Its advert links to a series of briefing papers and news articles about the topic.

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