Post-Abortion Outreach Ads in NYC Invoke Furious Response

They hadn't even seen them yet but hated them. From Metro.us, March 8, with the objective headline, "Don't look now: You may not like the ads you see"...

Starting this week, the NYC subway system will be flooded with a massive ad campaign that addresses a touchy subject: abortion.

The 2k ads, which straphangers will see in nearly every subway station beginning tomorrow, depict either a woman saying, "I thought life would be the way it was before," or a man saying, "I often wonder if there was something I could have done to help her."

The ads haven't been unveiled yet, but they're already stirring up controversy, particularly from pro-choice organizations.

"The campaign suggests that feelings of sadness and self-harm are the universal experiences for someone who had an abortion," said Samantha Levine of NARAL Pro-Choice NY. "And there's no evidence to suggest that that's true."...

Levine, like so many other liberal feminist pro-aborts, is committing a patriarchal, exploitive mind game here by disallowing post-abortive mothers their feelings if negative. Thankfully more rational liberal feminists are at least acknowledging the possibility. Continuing the piece:

"The organization behind these ads has an agenda," continued Levine. "They aren't seeking to help women - they're seeking to get abortion banned."

But Michaelene Fredenburg, who started San Diego-based Abortion Changes You after her own abortion, says her ads are more about helping people than politics.

"I had an abortion when I was 18," said Fredenburg, 44. "I had a hard time.... I wanted to reach out and say you're not alone."

Loved this intro, by Fran Johns at TrueSlant.com:

As if the GA anti-choice campaign linking abortion rights to Black genocide or the Polish campaign linking abortion to Hitler weren't enough, now we have a soft sell campaign complete with well-dressed women ostensibly traumatized by a past abortion and downcast men who yearn to be good fathers....

But Fran's vision is slanted:

I have no reason, other than it seems a great way to sell stuff and make a few bucks, to question Fredenburg's altruistic intentions in founding Abortion Changes You....

Why isn't True Slant questioning the fact abortion profiteers make their living from peddling abortion?

kirbygirl87 sends mixed messages in her protest at amplifyyourvoice.org:

Not every women is depressed and regrets her decisions. Not every boyfriend or husband wants to interfere with the women's decision. What if the women felt she made the right decision, and what if the partner supported the decision? Why do ads like these always depict the women as sad and questioning her judgement [sic], do women do that often? Do we change our minds? Do we regret the decisions that we make? Not often.

Which is it, "not every," equivalent to "almost every," or "not often"?

Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon.com is a little more reasonable:

Here's the thing: I think we should acknowledge that abortion can change you, that it isn't necessarily an "eh, whatevs" event. For some women, it may be akin to getting a tooth pulled; for others, though, it results in a profound and haunting loss. None of this goes against the dominant pro-choice message, which is that women should be allowed to make their own reproductive choices based on what they feel is right for them. Women have different experiences of abortion and they should be allowed to make different decisions, too.

That isn't to say I'm super pumped about the ads, though. They present one side of the story, which is that abortion changes you, period. Not that abortion can change a woman, but that it always does, and that is quite simply a lie. It isn't the sort of message born of concern for women, but rather a concern for converting women. Also, you know what is guaranteed to change you and your life in a profound way? Motherhood. But I don't recall seeing any subways ads featuring a woman knee-deep in dirty diapers with the text, "I thought life would be the way it was before."

But here's the thing, Tracy. No one in the world maintains life won't change after having a baby. But hardcore pro-aborts do indeed try to say life won't change after abortion. Refer back to Levine's quote above.

Read the press release here. Abortion Changes You ran this ad campaign in NYC in 2008. They tell me this campaign will run through the 1st week of April.

NYC is the perfect place, since at least 10% of all US abortions, 100k, emanate from NYC annually.