by Kathleen Gilbert
OAKLAND, California, June 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The billboard company hosting a series of pro-life ads addressing the Bay Area black community have refused to bend to demands that led to the removal of similar ads elsewhere in America.
CBS Outdoor General Manager Jeff McCuen has said it will continue to display 60 billboards in Oakland that show an image of a black infant with the words “Black & Beautiful,” directing viewers to the website TooManyAborted.com/ca. The site, sponsored by the Radiance Foundation, provides sourced statistical information showing that unborn black children are aborted at a rate 3 to 5 times higher than other groups.
“African-Americans share 38.5%6 of all abortions, nationwide, even though the racial group only comprises 13%7 of the population. This is not a black versus white issue. This is a human rights issue,” states the group on its California homepage.
The advertisements have come under fierce opposition in the liberal state, where pro-abortion leaders have demanded the removal of the signs for being “demonizing” and “blatantly racist.”
“Scare tactics like these, intimidation tactics, tactics that are demonizing women of color ... are completely uncalled for and inappropriate,” Evelyn Shen of ReproductiveJustice.org told local reporters.
Some even called the high rate of black abortions a “myth”: pro-abortion U.S. Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee said the billboards “stigmatize” black women and “perpetuate myths about parenting skills and the types of women who seek and use abortion services.”
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has also stood up against the advertisements.
Black pastor and pro-life activist Rev. Walter Hoye, who was involved in the campaign, said the billboards are achieving their goal by getting attention.
“It has been said that one can be judged by the strength of his or her enemies,” wrote Hoye on Facebook. “If this old adage is true ... by that standard alone our billboard campaign is formidable, and by God’s grace and mercy is having the impact desired as a result of communicating His timeless truth of love and life in the public square.”
However, some of that attention is less helpful: the group also says it has had to fight serious media distortions regarding their campaign.
On its Youtube page, TooManyAborted fought back against news coverage on a local CBS affiliate with a video pointing out many falsehoods in the television report. The report interviews a black woman who criticizes the billboard, without noting the individual is local pro-abortion activist Alicia Walters.
Similar billboards for TooManyAborted.com have been erected in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
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