Religious organizations can now place anti-abortion advertisements on Google after a lawsuit by a British pro-life charity forced it to lift the ban.

Google settled out of court Wednesday with The Christian Institute, a UK-based charity, and will now allow religious groups to place factual and campaigning ads about abortion. The new policy will apply world-wide with immediate effect. The Institute lost no time in placing its first advertisement on the website.

The Christian Institute wanted to advertise with Google by paying so that when the word 'abortion' was typed into the search engine, a link to a web page on its views would pop up on the right-hand side of the screen.

The link reading 'UK abortion law - news and views on abortion from the Christian Institute' would enable users to click on it to access the institute's website. The institute had hoped to advertise its online articles on pro-life issues ahead of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill being debated in the House of Commons this summer.

However, Google refused to display the ad in March because its policy banned the advertising of sites that mixed 'abortion and religion-related content'.

The Christian Institute started legal action against Google on the grounds that it was infringing the Equality Act 2006 by discriminating against Christian groups. The charity argued that Google accepted ads for abortion clinics, secular pro-abortion sites and secularist sites which attack religion.

A spokesperson for Google told The Independent: 'The issue of abortion is an emotive subject and Google does not take a particular side. Over the past few months we have been reviewing our abortion ads policy in order to make sure it was fair, up to date and consistent with local customs and practices. Following the review we have decided to amend our policy, creating a level playing field and enabling religious associations to place ads on abortion in a factual way.'