"Anti-abortion groups have lined I-55 with horrible billboards intended to shame and traumatize people," Shout Your Abortion wrote on its website. "We hope that our billboards are a beacon of support and affirmation for everyone making that journey."
The six billboards span Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.
“It just hurts my heart to think about all the folks that are having to encounter [pro-life billboards] in order to access abortion care,” Shout Your Abortion Executive Director Amelia Bonow told NPR Illinois. “And…we're all quite used to being inundated with shame-based, judgmental, harassing anti-abortion messages, whether that's on billboards or protesters screaming outside of a clinic or messaging coming from the faith community.”
Pro-Life Across America Director Mary Ann Kuharski told NPR Illinois that her organization is currently in the process of changing some of the billboards, but recent campaigns have used messages such as “Every Life Counts -- I could feel pain at 12 weeks’ and “Protect the Babies – heartbeat at 18 days from conception.”
Pro-life messaging values the lives of unborn children. Human life has intrinsic, sacred value. Any message acknowledging the humanity of children whose lives are ended by abortion can invoke an emotional response. The messaging is not intended to harm mothers. It is intended to help them acknowledge the value of unborn children and save lives. The billboards placed by Shout Your Abortion only help to keep society in denial and enable more deaths.
