An Ohio abortion clinic, Preterm has launched a billboard campaign to reduce the “stigma” around abortion with messages like “abortion is good medicine,” “abortion is necessary,” and even “abortion is a blessing.” Not only are these messages extremely controversial as it is, they also have been accuse of specifically targeting black neighborhoods.
Preterm reserved sixteen billboards, each with the phrase, “Abortion is _____.” Each billboard attempts to associate the killing of a baby inside the womb with a positive word or phrase.
Some attempt to tie abortion with health. These signs declare abortion is “health care,” “normal,” “necessary,” “good medicine,” and even “life-saving.” Other terms associate abortion with practicality. Billboards describe abortion as “right for me,” “safer than childbirth,” “a second chance,” and “your right.” Again, these utterly divorce the truth of the act — that it kills a unique individual with DNA separate from the mother’s — from the public image.
Finally, another set of terms associate abortion with a higher plane of morality or existence. Billboards describe abortion as “hope,” “a parenting decision,” “gender equality,” “liberty,” “a family value,” “a blessing,” and even “sacred.”
This is not your parents’ abortion movement. The days of “safe, legal, and rare” might as well be ancient history for this campaign. According to Preterm, abortion is healthy, practical, liberating, and even noble.
Perhaps the most disgusting part of this inversion, however, is the utter shamelessness of how. Preterm engages in racial targeting. The abortion organization does not even hide the fact it wants to help abort black babies.
“As an organization that has served women and families of all means and identities for decades, we know how race, discrimination, and poverty shape the reproductive lives of our patients. Because of racial injustice, women of color are both more likely to need abortions, and less likely to be able to afford them,” the abortion clinic explained in a “racial justice” post on its website. (via: PJ Media)
Many in the targeting communities say they are sick of being targeted this way. Others are extremely offended by the messages themselves. Would you be offended if these signs were posted where your children had to see them every day?
