Verizon blocks text messages from NARAL

An article in today's New York Times discusses Verizon's decision not to transmit messages to their cell phone customers who have signed up for action alerts from NARAL Pro-Choice America. The article expands to cover the broader issue of "net neutrality" wherein carriers of internet content, and presumably SMS messages, can (or can't) make decisions about which messages or content to carry.

Verizon says it makes decisions based on issues, not on specific content.

“Our internal policy is in fact neutral on the position,” said the spokesman, Jeffrey Nelson. “It is the topic itself” — abortion — “that has been on our list.”

Of course, since Right to Life groups aren't using text messaging at the moment, that's an unproven point.

We can't help but wonder how letting a carrier make a choice about the content it carries compares to letting a woman make a choice about the baby she's carrying. We agree that everyone benefits from a healthy discussion about a controversial issue. We wish Verizon and other carriers would agree to carry any message between organizations and the cell phone users who have opted in to receive messages from those organizations. We're just not sure that requiring Verizon to, shall we say, carry the message to term, is consistent with a pro-choice position.

What do you think? About text messaging, that is.