Hi All. This is basically a rant.
I live on the Gulf Coast, and saw something really, really tacky and disgusting today.
Because of Spring Break, there have been HUGE air billboards flying back and forth across the beach. (A plane will basically tow a large banner in the air).So far we've seen Geico and some others.
Well the topic of today's banner? ABORTION! That's right folks. They had a (medically inaccurate since it was further developed) picture of a "10-week" fetus all hacked up. Bloody arm and whatnot. Perfect for kids everywhere to see.They also had their website which I don't care to re-post, lest they get more hits.
If they REALLY, truly cared about reducing abortions they would have sponsored a condom ad or provided condoms for Spring Breakers.
I have a personal bone to pick with anti choicers because mostly..they are so god damn hypocritical.
I always wonder how many adopted children people have when they have outspoken bumper stickers (or here in FL, license plates! Barf!) that say how abortion is bad/wrong/you shouldn't do it. They don't tend to adopt a lot of kids and help people who couldn't take care of them. They also tend to eat meat (which is a personal decision, but is by nature inherently NOT "pro life" and it certainly causes more suffering than the abortion of a 10 week fetus) and many tend to also not be against the death penalty. I'd have a lot more respect for them if they REALLY WERE pro-life in all forms. But they aren't.
This just gets me so mad. I don't really think there's anything to do about it since I don't have the funds to hire my own ad. But seriously, these people should google and look up pictures of what happens to women when they are butchered by illegal abortionists.
Just wanted to say that WOMEN are people, too and I hope they are largely unsuccessful with their campaign.
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Ugh, I know how you feel. On my college campus, they've actually had a big moving-type truck drive around in front of the Student Union all day with a big picture of an aborted fetus plastered to the side. They also make a "graveyard of the innocent" on the field in front of the Union, with little blue or pink flags sticking up everywhere to represent aborted fetuses.
The VOX (Voices for Planned Parenthood) group on campus doesn't resort to these tactics. They hand out condoms, have cards you can sign for petitions to lower the cost of birth control or protect gay rights, hold table-sits (as does the pro-life group and most of the groups on campus), and don't harass those that don't agree with them. It's a much more intelligent and respectful way to go about professing your beliefs.
Oddly enough,these are mostly the same people who were so worked up that children could have seen Janet Jackson's nipple. I wonder what makes it OK for kids to see graphic pictures of aborted fetuses?
The MPAA. Has anyone else seen the documentry This Film Is Not Yet Rated which points out that movies with sex get a higher rating than movies with violence.
I have a feeling I know which group you're talking about. They've been to UMD before and use shock tactics to try and get their "message" across. They have all sorts of pictures and skewed information on display. It's pretty awful. But to just display such material to unsuspecting beach goers is even worse.
Heh, I'm glad you mentioned that about the meat eating pro-lifers. From a purely biological standpoint, a chicken feels far more pain when being killed than a fetus does when aborted. Strangely enough, I'm the one who's disrespecting life when I bring that up. Anti-choicers are a strange, strange breed.
I think it's perfectly valid to be against abortion. But if that's your stance, you need to act like it - doing things that hurt women? Not helpful. (I feel like a bad person just for being female when I walk past the pro-life ads at the train station, and I've never* even had an abortion.) Doing things that help women reduce their need for abortions? Very helpful.
*I actually have one scheduled for next week, incidentally, but that's neither here nor there.
You bring up a good point. I CAN see the validity in the opinion that abortion is not okay. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about things.
However, I feel that I haven't come across people who feel this way and advocate prevention (as opposed to scare tactics, implying that women are whores, telling everyone abortion is murder, etc), and support women. Pro "life" people forget that women are even PEOPLE, much less LIVING people. They afford a zygote or fetus personhood but not the women who are pregnant! I can understand the stance that "hey, abortion is awful but if it's illegal, a, b, and c will happen and that's not pro-life". The best way to go about eliminating abortions is to prevent them. For them to not be all about prevention- and I DO mean advocating condom use and EC- to me, proves that they DON'T actually care about abortions or actual born babies. They care about the idea of controlling women and pretending they have the moral high ground by demonizing pregnant women who choose to abort. And that's not good for anyone involved.
As a side note, I felt it was wildly inappropriate because it wasn't the venue anyhow. It's not like there was a pro-choice rally here or anything.
I have to wonder, do any of these people who display gory fake abortion pics ever complain about violence in the media? This sort of hypocricy wouldn't be a surprise for me.
Wow, thanks for ruining my spring break pro-lifers. The hypocracy behind the pro-choice movement is very frustrating and disgusting.
Oh God, I saw that flying crap yesterday! I live in Panama City Beach, FL and it was flying around all day. It was awful, it made me so mad! Usually the flying banners are just advertisements for local surf shops, I did not expect to see that. I also noticed that the banner was inaccurate - the fetus displayed on the billboard would have been significantly farther along than 10 weeks. I also wish I had the money to hire my own ad - two ads actually, one with advertisements on where to get EC and reproductive services in the area, and one telling the spring breakers to pick up their garbage!
However, I did see one positive thing yesterday - Trojan had a booth set up on the beach and was giving out condoms to spring breakers.
This whole thing makes me want to dress any of my possible future kids in onesies that say "I know my Mommy loves me: she's pro-choice!" and parade them around in front of anti-choicers. At least pro-choice kids know that their parents weren't stuck with them on accident. A low tactic, I know, but if you can't beat them... at least fantasize about stooping to their level!
I somehow knew this had to be Panama City Beach. I grew up (well, from the age of 10 until college) in that area, and I've seen those banners and trucks. Sadly, moving didn't allow any escape. Is this the same group that compares abortion to the Holocaust and displays pictures of mutilated fetuses next to Holocaust victims?