That didn’t last long!

Verizon gave in.

Reversing course, Verizon Wireless announced yesterday that it would allow an abortion rights group to send text messages to its supporters on Verizon’s mobile network.

“The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon, in a statement issued yesterday morning, adding that the earlier decision was an “isolated incident.”

That’s some fast backpeddling. They gave in to the pressure, from pro-abortion activists and the New York Times, among others.

MediaPost reported this news happily….and incorrectly.

This morning, after news broke that AT&T had refused to allow the abortion rights group Naral Pro-Choice America to send text messages to supporters, the telecom changed its position. Now, the company says it will allow Naral to send text messages.

Wasn’t it Verizon?

“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,” Jeffrey Nelson, a company spokesman, told The New York Times in a statement. The turnaround came just hours after the Times posted an online story about AT&T refusing to allow Naral to send text messages.

Yes, Jeffrey Nelson is spokesman for Verizon. Writer Wendy Davis didn’t get her facts right. She must have been in a rush to report what to her, was good news. And to issue a warning to other companies.

(Remember, AT&T is actually Verizon to those concerned with the truth.)

Here, AT&T undoubtedly was concerned about the bad press it was receiving for prohibiting a group with a sizable opt-in membership from sending text messages, but it’s not clear how AT&T or telecoms will treat other, less well-known groups. For that matter, it’s also not clear how many nonprofits or political groups AT&T has blocked from sending text messages in the past.

The next time AT&T and others go to Washington to lobby against net neutrality laws, they should be called to account for how they’ve addressed such issues in the past

Yes, it’s good to remember the eventuality of being called to account.