(LifeSiteNews) — Far-left advocacy group Shout Your Abortion has placed billboards with pro-abortion messages on Interstate 55 through pro-life states leading into pro-abortion Illinois, declaring the intentional killing of preborn children as “OK” and potentially “right for you.”
The billboards, which span Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee, bear messages such as “God’s plan includes abortion” and “you know what’s right for you,” are meant to counter various pro-life billboards along the route, which is used by people traveling from states where abortion is now illegal to Illinois, where the practice is legal, subsidized, and backed by a governor who wants it enshrined in the state constitution.
We are so proud of these billboards. If you see one on I-55, take a pic and let us know. Good luck to everyone having an abortion today! <3 #ShoutYourAbortion https://t.co/FB3CiE1Sza
— Shout Your Abortion (@ShoutYrAbortion) September 16, 2023
Abortion travelers on I-55 are “probably already in a difficult situation, to say the least” before seeing billboards calling attention to the humanity of the babies they are planning to kill, Shout Your Abortion executive director Amelia Bonow told The Washington Post. “It feels really good to think that we could have made somebody’s experience just a little bit easier.”
A GoFundMe campaign to support the billboards has raised more than $8,000 of a $10,000 goal.
Shout Your Abortion was founded in 2015 on the theory that pro-life sentiment is sustained by simple ignorance of the experiences and perspectives of women who have abortions, and that publicizing “positive” abortion stories would turn the tide for “choice.” In fact, while it is unclear how much similar pro-abortion projects have impacted current public opinion, they have not fundamentally changed the debate because they do not address the central pro-life contention that the preborn are the party really being disregarded.
Nor does Shout your Abortion’s narrative acknowledge the fact that pro-lifers are deeply cognizant of the women considering abortion, including the real motivations for most abortions, alternatives for treating genuine medical emergencies, and the procedure’s various harms to women.
In fact, providing free care and resources to women in crisis pregnancies is one of the pro-life movement’s biggest functions, only for the so-called “pro-choice” movement to attack them. Pro-lifers have also collected many personal stories of women who regret their abortions, via groups such as Silent No More and Rachel’s Vineyard, only for abortion advocates to falsely claim abortion regret is a myth.
Fifteen states currently ban all or most abortions, with available data so far indicating those states could effectively wipe out an estimated 200,000 abortions a year.
In response, abortion allies pursue a variety of tactics to preserve abortion “access,” such as easy access to abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, attempting to enshrine “rights” to the practice in state constitutions rather than the U.S. Constitution, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, and making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors.
President Joe Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would not only restore but expand the Roe status quo by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws. The 2024 elections will determine whether Democrats retain the White House and keep or gain enough seats in Congress to make that happen.