I live in the urban core of the Bay Area. One-half block from my home in Oakland, no doubt master-minded by people who never had to face an unintended or risky pregnancy themselves, we find this gem:
The neighborhood I live in is heavily Latino and African-American and the infant in the advertisement has pink cheeks and red hair. Leaving that aside for a moment, what about the horrible condescension shown women actually faced with high-risk pregnancies or pregnancies in impossible circumstances?
So, a random woman or girl in crisis over an unintended pregnancy calls the 800 number given in the ad. She tearfully explains to the sweet-voiced counselor on the other end she already has children that she can barely feed, she's still in school, she's pregnant because of a rape, or, for any of a number of other compelling reasons, she's distressed over this pregnancy.
The counselor isn't objective. The counselor who's listening to this private distress, can't open-mindedly and compassionately help this desperate woman to choose the best option for herself. Mind you, the counselor is biased. The counselor is empowered only to spout right-wing propaganda in the caller's ear, in essence:
There, there, dear, you're a breeder. That's your function. If you can't raise your precious bundle of joy, there are people who can.
The billboard, then, is predatory. It needs to come down. Ones like it in your own community need to come down, too.
I've written the following email to Lynette Gibson McElhaney, the City Council member in charge of the neighborhood the billboard appears in. My email can serve as a model for ones you might send in response to forced-birth propaganda near you:
Dear Ms. McElhaney:
I could not be more offended by this billboard, which appears at XXXXX XXXXX XXXXXX, which I understand to be part of District 3.
The billboard promotes the radical, minority political view that safe abortion shouldn't be a woman's basic right, since the loaded term "prolife" on the billboard is consistent with other propaganda on the web site of the sponsoring organization. The advertisement promotes the paternalistic notion that others are better-qualified than one carrying a pregnancy in difficult circumstances, to decide whether she is to bring that pregnancy to term. A woman facing an accidental pregnancy, it follows, shouldn't be presented with a range of choices about it.
I understand that billboard advertising space is for sale. But, surely, the city has guidelines for what messages advertisers promote in public space.
Please yank this toxic billboard. And please legislate to prevent the recurrence of similarly ugly ones.
Sincerely,
XXXXX XXXXXXXX