Email's been sent.

Vulgar?

Aren't these folks allied the same people who I saw a month or two ago, with enormous full color billboards, garishly colored and carefully framed for maximum grossness, of aborted feti? Weren't those prolife posters?

And they're calling an IMPLICATION vulgar?

Christ. Talk about hypocrites.

Damn, Sailorman stole my comment.

So yeah. What he said.

email sent.

email sent from the heartland....

Um. If my closet space is shrinking as fast as the royal "her" right to choose...then why would I need more storage space?

Because if it's compared to that, then it's not shrinking at all...

This seems to be a case where an agenda obviously outweighs any logic in advertising - unless I'm oblivious to radical pro-life legislature in the NY senate?

Uh, how about the radical anti-choice legislation coming out of the Federal level? Or all over the rest of the country? Or the Supreme Court?

Believe it or not, some of us actually care about people who don't happen to live on our block.

It's the radical pro-life Supreme Court one must worry about, Joe. You know the one that voted to shrink a woman's right to choose (and her doctor's right to choose medical options as welll).

Mary Alice Carr here of the quote up top - thanks for the shout out Feministing.

But I am really here to just do a little one on one with Joe. Yes Joe, you are oblivious to the NY State Senate which is currently an anti-choice majority.

It's hard to believe, but it's true.

And even if we were 100% pro-choice at all levels of government in NY, there is nothing we can do when federal laws are upheld at the Supreme Court that say a woman can't get an abortion even when her health is at risk.

So yes Joe, there is a shrinking right to choose.

Email sent from sunny California! :-)

I'm excited that you stopped by, Ms. Carr.

Thanks to Jessica for the e-mail link! I took the opportunity.

I cannot visit feministing without viewing lordotic bikini ads with accompanying thigh-gaps wide enough to hold a healthy grapefruit. Ditto, too on the creepy fetus imagery whith which I have so often been confronted while, among other things, just going to work. It's about time the noisy agora gave me something back that I can wholeheartedly appreciate.

This was my favorite part of the NY1 article that was mentioned in a similar post a few days ago:

“I think it’s kind of crazy that they put it up there like that,� added New Yorker Dalton Adams. “I think it’s a little disrespectful. I think it’s a little inconsiderate and it’s big! I mean, it’s not hidden, people can see it.�

People can see it? What the hell are these advertisers thinking, "putting up" their unhidden, visible advertisements?!

FYI: This was those Catholic bullholes' official press release regarding the ad:

There is a billboard on Manhattan’s West Side Highway, at 44th Street and 12th Avenue, that shows a large wire hanger with the inscription, “Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose.� The ad was placed by Manhattan Mini Storage, owned by Edison Properties.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“New Yorkers are accustomed to Manhattan Mini Storage posting billboards that bash the Bush Administration, but when it makes the leap from partisan politics to crude cultural commentary, it is stepping on dangerous turf. Why a storage company finds the need to advertise its support for abortion is a story all of its own, but when it seeks to depict the pro-life community—which is primarily Catholic and Protestant—as oppressive, then a line has been crossed.

“Those who like this billboard would no doubt be aghast at the sight of a billboard that featured a bloody baby who survived a botched abortion. They would be even more incensed if the picture were accompanied by the remark, ‘This is what happens when abortion fails.’

“Manhattan Mini Storage is not only guilty of crudeness, but of cowardice. To wit: Why didn’t it have the guts to identify the object of her ‘shrinking’ choice?�

EXFUCKINGCUSE ME? "...but when it seeks to depict the pro-life community...as oppressive, then a line has been crossed." Um, HELLO!!!

Don't even get me started on them calling MMS "cowards" for not posting a picture of a "failed abortion." That doesn't even make sense.

Don't forget, SoyMilk, abortion itself is supposed to be deeply, deeply shameful — or at the least an intensely private tragedy. It's not something people might even allude to as a positive option in a "Big!" and "not hidden" way.

I'm pretty offended that my town in East Texas welcomes billboards touting the anti-choice agenda. This would be a very welcome change. Being called a murderer every morning on my way to work is a great way to start the day!

Yeah, um "bullholes" was supposed to be "buttholes." Don't quite know how I managed to fuck that one up.

Hey, I think that it is time for abortion to "come out of the closet" hee hee. No really, I think that us pro choicers are sometimes too afraid of getting the other side riled up that we tend to be careful. EVERYday I am inundated with billboards put up by the anti choicers. They range from a picture of a baby that says "I'm a baby, not a blob", well duh, at that point, to a picture of an African American baby with the caption "Abortion, the number one killer of African Americans. OR the one with Jesus that asks "Hurting After an Abortion? We can help" I deal with the multitude of churches around here that have marquees saying "Aren't you Glad your mother was pro life?" Ummm...she wasn't and still isn't, she is very adamantly pro choice, thankyouverymuch!

Yes the hanger represents something vulgar, it is vulgar to think that before abortion was legal, that some women were so desperate that they felt that was their last resort.

I am so glad to FINALLY see a pro choice billboard, I just wish that they were here in Michigan.

"Aren't you Glad your mother was pro life?"
Mine tried hard to illegally abort proto-me about 2 years pre-Roe, but gave up because it would have endangered her life. She suffered 30+ years of unnecessary, wracking guilt over that. We're both pro-choice, pro-autonomy, and pro-each-other despite the odds.

I love that argument as much as you do.

Re: "Aren't you Glad your mother was pro life?"

It's this astounding unwillingness (or inability) to think critically and logically that pisses me off the most!!

Not every woman who has a baby is pro-life!! Arg I feel like punching something.

Yeah, that argument is so stupid. If every woman who has given birth was "pro-life", then abortion rights wouldn't have the MAJORITY support that it does.

Haha, yes! More use of the f-word on Feministing!

Know what's trashy and vulgar?
The Catholic Church!

I am 1/2 joking. Sending letter soon...

I saw this on Digg and the title was "Pro-abortion" something or other. If the whole terminology and true meaning of terms is lost on these people, I do not see how there can be any intelligent argument with them.
Maybe if the majority of anti-choicers cared at ALL about children once they are born, supported contraception and low-income assistance for kids, I could see some merit in their argument, even though I disagree with it. As it is now, they care more about fetuses than women OR children.

"Aren't you Glad your mother was pro life?"

---

Who me? Why, I'm just a woman. I thought the "PRO-let's make LIFE really shitty for as many people as we can" message was that women are disposable non-persons deserving neither life nor liberty of their own Why should I be glad of that?

I too am with Sailorman. A local pro-life group recently held graphic signs and posters on a major road in my town with pictures of "aborted" fetuses and other truly vulgar pictures. Try explaining that to a four year old.

On a bit of a side note - where do they get these pictures? I do not know any woman who has taken a picture of her aborted fetus or any doctor who has. Do they dig through the bio waste of these facilities until they find something "good"? If that is the case, how do they know it was an abortion not a miscarriage or other case? Just curious.

That is a very good question, Jacque. But one to which you will never get an honest answer.

Doctors' offices don't let strangers with cameras into operating rooms for abortion photo shoots.

And the staff disposing of medical waste wouldn't lay the body of an aborted fetus out next to a quarter to demonstrate it's size and tragic humanity.

Women don't take their abortions home with them.

The pictures used by anti-choicers are most likely stillborns or babies who died during or shortly after birth. Especially the older-looking fetuses. Most of the fetuses you'll see are too old to have been aborted anyway; you know if they were it was for a very serious reason. So basically, anti-choicers use pictures of stillborns to spread their propaganda. I'm sure they do a lot of photoshopping too. Or just photograph plastic fetus "dolls" with lots of gory makeup on.

SarahMC....
"Or just photograph plastic fetus "dolls" with lots of gory makeup on."

You just got a picture in my head of little 'pro-lifers' doing the same thing to Barbies as what I always wanted to do....

Lol!

I totally want to go store a fishtank or something at this place now.

Email sent from Mihigan.

Regarding the pictures that anti-abortions folks use, when I was at the March for Women's Lives in DC in 2004, there were a lot of counter protestors holding up some grotesque signs. One of the women in our group is a nurse practitioner at our local Planned Parenthood and she said that they were pictures from miscarriages and stillbirths, not abortions.

And how does a bloody baby survive an abortion (as mentioned in the quote from the catholic lady)? As far as I know, any abortion done during the first or second trimester (which is what, 99% of them) wouldn't involve a fetus that could live outside of the womb.

I am curious what entitlement a woman has to her aborted fetus. If she chooses to bury it, is she allowed to, etc.

I have wondered where these pics come from also. Even if they are from stillborn babies, where do the stillborn babies come from. Does someone who has a stillborn all of a sudden take these pictures? It seems morbid.

I do feel that photography has its place and is effective in some campaigns, but I do not think that a hanger is any more offensive of the same baby head in a jar that I have seen over and over again. In fact, the hanger itself is implicative, and not gory at all.

There's also the possibility that they find these pictures in medical journals/books. The pictures most likely have little or nothing to do with abortion, but captions can be removed as long as a picture serves its purpose.

The only thing vulgar about the billboard is that illegal abortion is being used to sell storage space. But sex is used to sell everything else and no one bats an eye, so I'm not personally bothered by it.

Here's my letter:

"I am not a resident of New York City, but I was very pleased to see pictures of your pro-choice billboard on the Internet. Thank you very much for taking a stand on this issue. I've heard you were criticized by The Catholic League for being "trashy" and "vulgar." I think that the real vulgarity here is that abortion rights are under constant attack, and that the real "trashy" people here are the ones who don't care about women's rights or lives. I think the people that are displeased with your ad feel threatened by its honesty and boldness. Thank you for calling them out on their stance and standing up for women's rights.
PS: It's nice to finally see a pro-choice billboard. And for the record, yours is a thousand times classier than the disgusting and inaccurate ones anti-abortion people put up.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
([CITY, STATE])"

Does anyone have any tips on how to better my letter-writing skills? I write lots of letters to editors and e-mails, and I always feel awkward and don't know if I sound right.

I sent my e-mail, but I'm not very confident in my letter-writing skills. Care to critique this?

"I am not a resident of New York City, but I was very pleased to see pictures of your pro-choice billboard on the Internet. Thank you very much for taking a stand on this issue. I've heard you were criticized by The Catholic League for being "trashy" and "vulgar." I think that the real vulgarity here is that abortion rights are under constant attack, and that the real "trashy" people here are the ones who don't care about women's rights or lives. I think the people that are displeased with your ad feel threatened by its honesty and boldness. Thank you for calling them out on their stance and standing up for women's rights.
PS: It's nice to finally see a pro-choice billboard. And for the record, yours is a thousand times classier than the disgusting and inaccurate ones anti-abortion people put up.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
(CITY, STATE)"

I sent my e-mail, but I'm not very confident in my letter-writing skills. Care to critique this?

"I am not a resident of New York City, but I was very pleased to see pictures of your pro-choice billboard on the Internet. Thank you very much for taking a stand on this issue. I've heard you were criticized by The Catholic League for being "trashy" and "vulgar." I think that the real vulgarity here is that abortion rights are under constant attack, and that the real "trashy" people here are the ones who don't care about women's rights or lives. I think the people that are displeased with your ad feel threatened by its honesty and boldness. Thank you for calling them out on their stance and standing up for women's rights.
PS: It's nice to finally see a pro-choice billboard. And for the record, yours is a thousand times classier than the disgusting and inaccurate ones anti-abortion people put up.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
(CITY, STATE)"

I sent my e-mail, but I'm not very confident in my letter-writing skills. Care to critique this?

"I am not a resident of New York City, but I was very pleased to see pictures of your pro-choice billboard on the Internet. Thank you very much for taking a stand on this issue. I've heard you were criticized by The Catholic League for being "trashy" and "vulgar." I think that the real vulgarity here is that abortion rights are under constant attack, and that the real "trashy" people here are the ones who don't care about women's rights or lives. I think the people that are displeased with your ad feel threatened by its honesty and boldness. Thank you for calling them out on their stance and standing up for women's rights.
PS: It's nice to finally see a pro-choice billboard. And for the record, yours is a thousand times classier than the disgusting and inaccurate ones anti-abortion people put up.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
(CITY, STATE)"

“I think it’s kind of crazy that they put it up there like that,� added New Yorker Dalton Adams. “I think it’s a little disrespectful. I think it’s a little inconsiderate and it’s big! I mean, it’s not hidden, people can see it.�

Is it just me, or would this quote be right at home in an Onion article?

E-mail sent from Canada... I just love this ad - I am telling everyone I know about it!

"Re: 'Aren't you Glad your mother was pro life?'"

Now I wonder how the people who post those flyers would like to see "Aren't you glad your father was pro sex?" flyers posted too.

"I have wondered where these pics come from also. Even if they are from stillborn babies, where do the stillborn babies come from. Does someone who has a stillborn all of a sudden take these pictures? It seems morbid."

I heard that some people out there fight against abortion rights both before and after choosing to abort their own pregnancies. Maybe that's where some of these pihotos come from...

"Does someone who has a stillborn all of a sudden take these pictures? It seems morbid."

Mothers who give birth to stillborns will usually take pictures of their baby. To a mother, even if it is a dead baby, if they chose to have it, it is their baby and they want pictures. A really good friend of mine had a stillborn, she took pictures and has one of them framed and on display in her room, that was her baby. BUT, the pictures that I have seen of stillborns usually involved them cleaned up and dressed and not "gorified".

Doesn't a practitioner examine the fetuses after an abortion to make sure that they got it all? Do they ever take pictures to document it?

SassyGirl-

Yes, sorry. I meant only grotesque pictures. I can totally understand why someone would take pictures/bury a full term baby.

Regarding Mina's comment:
I heard that some people out there fight against abortion rights both before and after choosing to abort their own pregnancies. Maybe that's where some of these photos come from...

Ha, yeah..the "do as I say, not as I do" crowd. Oh, I can have an abortion because god will forgive me and it was an honest mistake. But if you do it, you are a careless slut.

I am really curious about the pictures still. What about the more grotesque partial fetus ones?

Someone mentioned this a while ago in another thread, but there's the whole objectification/catcalling can-o-worms. Any man can do it to any woman, but we are forbidden the gaze (not just disinclined, I would argue).

Imagine a very old, very unattractive, or visibly homeless woman commenting publicly to a young, attractive, apparently affluent man on how well he met her sexual standards? Perhaps she calls attention to some of his secondary sex characteristics? Tells him she thinks he's looking fine while staring openly at his basket?

What would his reaction be? Would we expect him to be modestly pleased with himself? Gentle, compliant, compassionate? Impeccably polite if he did take offense?

Peepers-

I am not being sarcastic or mean- but are you posting in the right thread?

Damn. No. Ha! No, indeed. What an ass. Thanks, PamelaV, and sorry apologies to the rest of you :)

mistakes don't make you an ass. It was an honest mistake.