Separate and Unequal: Pro-Life Billboard Messages Get Banned

Targeting the black community with abortion is nothing new for an industry birthed in eugenic racism and elitism. A few weeks ago, Ohio’s largest abortion facility, Preterm, placed 16 billboards promoting the benefits of killing the unborn in Cleveland. Nine of those billboards were placed in predominantly black neighborhoods (with African-Americans comprising 79% or more of those neighborhoods).

Abortion is sacred. Abortion is a blessing. Abortion is necessary. Abortion is a family value. Abortion is gender equality. These are just some of the messages the multi-million dollar abortion business has displayed. Abortion is good medicine. Yes, because everyone knows that pregnancy is a disease. Only to a faux feminist movement is a woman’s biology her enemy.

The reaction from the community to Preterm’s ‘Abortion Is’ campaign has been one of outrage. The last thing that black communities need is more violence and hopelessness. Despite the fact that African-Americans make up only 12% of Ohio’s total population, they account for a hugely disproportionate 44% of the state’s 20,672 abortions. To contrast, 82% of Ohio’s population is white yet comprise only 49% of the state’s abortions. Abortion, no matter the “race” or hue is a tragedy.

So, The Radiance Foundation, local pastors and pro-life/pro-family groups across Ohio (Coalition for Life Cleveland) have now responded to Preterm, Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry that is desperately trying to destigmatize the most violent form of discrimination. Today, billboards declaring WhatAbortionReallyIs.com are going up all around the city. Abortion is population control. Abortion is fake feminism. Abortion is lost fatherhood. Abortion is big business. Abortion is regret.

Our social media campaign expounds upon these messages and, most importantly, highlights the pregnancy care centers and maternity homes that exist in the Cleveland area, providing compassionate help and hope. We’ve included post-abortion counseling and national pregnancy help resources like OptionLine and Pregnancy Decision Line as well. People can also find the real healthcare they need at over 13,000 federally qualified health centers and community health centers across the nation that provide the full spectrum of healthcare, minus the violence of abortion at GetYourCare.org.

Women don’t need abortion or the hucksters that come with that corrupt business. They need a network of support and love that doesn’t profit when innocent human life is destroyed. In fact, despite all the cries about “patriarchy” from liberal journos and Women’s March automatons, abortion is patriarchy. Just look at the majority of abortionists. They’re mostly male. At Preterm, two male abortionists (Mitchell Reider and Mohammad Rezaee) got paid $332,326 and $115,525, respectively, by Preterm according to its 2016 IRS filing—that’s nearly half a million dollars. These men also get paid to commit abortions at other abortion facilities in the state. Ka-ching!

Let’s keep in mind, too, that a young black mother—Lakisha Wilson—died along with her aborted child at Preterm in 2014. Do you remember the riots? Do you remember the chants of #BlackLivesMatter? Nope. It’s obvious that only some black lives matter. Abortionist Lisa Perriera, just like so many others who kill the unborn and botch the violent procedure killing the mother in the process, was never held accountable. She now works for an abortion mill in Philly—the city that doesn’t keep records of abortions committed and where Gosnell wasn’t held responsible for decades in a self-policing industry.

This “What Abortion Really Is” effort took weeks to get off the ground because executives at Lamar Advertising’s corporate headquarters, despite allowing Preterm to make any outlandish and subjective claim they wanted to about abortion, refused to allow our most powerful (and factual) statements in billboard form. Hal Kilshaw, Vice President of Governmental Relations at Lamar Advertising, banned the following declarations despite being provided the documented evidence to substantiate each statement:

• Abortion is systemic racism. A government funded entity—Planned Parenthood—that disproportionately kills unarmed black lives is systemic racism. Ironically, Lamar corporate allowed “Abortion is population control” which I told them was synonymous with the rejected phrase.
• Abortion is injustice anywhere. More black babies are aborted than born alive in New York City, home of Planned Parenthood. The black community is the only demographic where there are more induced deaths than births. How is this not injustice?
• Abortion is exploitation. Talk to millions of women who’ve felt pressured or duped into having an abortion or promoting its “equality”. Neither Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade) nor Sandra Cano (Mary Doe of Doe v. Bolton) aborted their children. They were both manipulated by pro-abortion attorneys to further a billion-dollar industry based on a lie.
• Abortion is genocide. Famed voting rights/anti-poverty activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, considered abortion to be genocide among blacks. She railed against Planned Parenthood’s racially targeted birth control and abortion practices. The Reverend Jesse Jackson also declared that “abortion is genocide” in a 1973 Jet Magazine He was once passionately pro-life until he ran for President on the Democrat ticket.
• Abortion is violence. What else do you call an act that dismembers an unborn human limb from limb? The late famed Bernard Nathanson, the co-founder of NARAL Prochoice America, committed over 5,000 abortions himself and oversaw 75,000. He even aborted his own child. Thankfully, he experienced a personal transformation and became a passionate advocate for the unborn. He famously declared: “all abortion is violence”. He was clearly an authority on this.

The gatekeepers are many and powerful. Whether they be traditional news outlets, social media platforms, educators or outdoor advertising companies, it’s crucial that speech addressing the most pivotal issues facing our society not be suppressed. I love the way Alliance Defending Freedom states it: “The answer is more speech.”

That’s what this collective WhatAbortionReallyIs.com effort is all about. Words are revolutionary. They have the ability to bring life or death. That conflict is playing out right now between two billboard campaigns—one where they speak “their truth” and the other that simply speaks the truth.

Ryan Bomberger is the Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation. He is happily married to his best friend, Bethany, who also happens to be the Executive Director of Radiance. They are adoptive parents with four awesome munchkins. Ryan is a creative agitator and international public speaker who just loves illuminating that every human life has purpose.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.