A new billboard in New York City is causing outrage from abortion advocates upset by the message: “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb.”
The billboard hopes to draw attention to the fact that African-Americans have abortions in much higher rates than their White and Hispanic counterparts and that Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses frequently target the black community by placing new abortion centers in minority neighborhoods.
The billboard, located at the corner of Watts Street and Sixth Avenue, directs viewers to go to thatsabortion.com, a web site offering more information on the topic. It is up in the Soho district and will remain in place for three weeks.
A representative of Life Always, Marissa Gabrysch, says her group, which paid for the billboard, is trying to draw attention to the fact that abortions kill 300,000 black unborn children annually.
“There’s a grave disparity and just a huge disproportion that African-Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population yet represent 36 percent of abortions in the United States,” she told NBC NY. African-Americans are claimed in abortions twice as frequently as they lose their lives to violent crimes, AIDS, cancer, heart disease and motor vehicle accidents combined.
Life Always board member Pastor Stephen Broden told the Catholic News Agency: “During Black History Month, we celebrate our history, but our future is in jeopardy as a genocidal plot is carried out through abortion. We have seen the heartbreaking effects of opportunists who happen to be black abortionists perpetrating this atrocity; it’s not just babies who are in danger, it’s also their mothers, and our society at large.”
Rev. Derek McCoy, another Life Always board member, added: “This campaign highlights the tragedy that abortion is the number one killer since 1973 in the black community and the truth that we must confront in a city with a near 60 percent abortion rate for black women.”
But Planned Parenthood condemned the billboard, saying, “These billboards are offensive and disturbing. The creators are using divisive messaging around race to restrict access to medical care,” according to the NBC station.
And Public Advocate Bill De Blasio demanded the billboard be taken down, saying, “This billboard simply doesn’t belong in our city. The ad violates the values of New Yorkers and is grossly offensive to women and communities of color.”
The billboard is similar to a campaign Heroic Media ran in Jacksonville, Florida and Austin Texas last year, that Life Always took over in January.
Although New York City media outlets have been turning to every source possible to find objections to it, one New Yorker told 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa that he doesn’t object to the three-story high ad.
“I think they’re trying to send a message to us African-Americans because we do do a lot of abortions and I think we shouldn’t be doing it,” the man said.
The billboard follows a December city health department report showing 41 percent of pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion in 2009. Blacks had the highest number of abortions with 40,798, the report indicated.
