Texas Anti-Abortion Group Takes Message To New York Billboards
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork.com) – A three-story high billboard put up in the SoHo neighborhood of New York Tuesday is causing quite a stir.
The billboard reads: "The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb."
While the ad was intended to spark debate, for many, it's simply sparked outrage.
The billboard is part of a national campaign sponsored by the Texas-based anti-abortion group Life Always and hangs about a half-mile from a Planned Parenthood facility.
The group claims Planned Parenthood targets minority neighborhoods and that abortions among African-American women are three times that of the rest of the population.
"And I'm sure black women are going to respond, in large part, because they have only heard one side of the argumentation. They only see it from Planned Parenthood's position of a woman's right to choose, meaning that the only choice that a woman has is to abort the baby. That's not the only choice!" Pastor Stephen Broden of Dallas' Fair Park Bible Fellowship told WCBS-TV in New York.
Planned Parenthood issued a statement accusing the creators of "using a divisive message around race to restrict access to medical care."
Broden, a board member of LifeAlways, says his group bought the billboard to get exactly this kind of debate going.
"That kind of billboard isn't going to help you make an educated choice. It's a little, emotionally planted," says New York resident Taffeta Wood.
"Why in the world are they doing that in SoHo? If we had put it in Harlem, I guarantee you that we would have been ignored," says Broden.
They have not been ignored.
"They are putting up a billboard sending … scaring women! Trying to make them fearful of a legal reproductive health care choice that they have in this country," says Christine Quinn, a New York City Council Speaker.
The city's public advocate, Bill Diblasio, called the billboard "grossly offensive" and wants it removed.
LifeAlways says they are planning other controversial billboards for at least three more weeks.
