When I was travelling to Kelowna this summer, I noticed a billboard along the highway in West Kelowna. I was shocked to see such a tasteless and unsympathetic ad, and glad I have a chance to share my opinion on that.
The billboard was erected by Kelowna Right to Life Coalition, an anti-abortion group. I feel that the message the ad is trying to convey is wrong on so many levels: claiming that a fetus is a baby, comparing a fetus to a born puppy, using a cute puppy image to appeal to emotion, and claiming that women have a choice in planning their pregnancy.
The problem I will address is the implication that woman having an abortion are cold-blooded murderers that kill unborn “babies” on purpose. Most women choose to end their pregnancy because of psychological or financial reasons, such as “Inadequate Finances”, “Not ready for responsibility” or “Problems with relationship; unmarried”. Poverty or an unhealthy relationship create uncertainty for pregnant women. When pregnancy happens at a young age, an average woman can hardly provide for herself, and the thought of having to provide for the baby as well can cause stress, depression, and suicidal tendencies. Anti-abortion groups do not alleviate the financial burden of young mothers, but they like to advise and judge them. So even if ending the pregnancy was a woman’s choice, she most likely did not have any alternatives.
Moreover, this ad’s implication is really offensive and discouraging to women for whom abortion was not a choice at all. For example, some women have serious medical conditions, when pregnancy has to be ended or become a threat to a woman’s life. In other cases, pregnancy can happen in an abusive relationship or because of rape. In such cases, keeping the baby may lead to psychological problems for a woman (and her child) in the future. So, unlike the ad states, women may not have a choice to continue their pregnancy.
In my mesh-up, I wanted to show what a right to life should really be about – making our own choices and having an alternative. My goal was to draw attention to the real problems many women face.
I did it first by putting “abuse, rape, poverty” in the center, as I believe these are the core issues that negatively affect a woman’s life. Undesired pregnancies can occur because of abuse and rape, which could be avoided if women were better protected by law. This is particularly relevant to non-white women, who are not part of middle-class. As it was mentioned in the “The Push to Prescribe. Women and Canadian Drug Companies” that young and aboriginal women are more likely to be prescribed an unsafe contraception drug; many of them are not told that the drug can have long-term negative consequences. These women are being abused by the system, it was not their “choice”. These are some of the real problems a Right to Life Society should be concerned about.
My other idea was to contrast the two choices, a real one and a presumed one. Thus, a choice under a puppy has no quotes, because killing a puppy is an intentional cruelty that can be avoided. Also, there is an alternative – a puppy can either die or run away and survive. I kept the quotes under the “abuse, rape, poverty” message, because this situation is not a choice for many women but a reality. This reality has no alternatives; these women cannot simply run away from it.
I hope that my message will help people realize how cruel and unfair the original ad is and will encourage them to care about real issues.
References:
http://abortionincanada.ca/facts/why-women-choose-abortion/
https://lifecollective.io/kelowna/about/who-we-are
