Taxpayer-funded National Public Radio enthusiastically advocates for abortion on a regular basis. A few months ago, their show Morning Edition even aired audio of an abortion as clinic workers cheered it on. On Wednesday, their morning "news" show turned to Memphis-based WKNO reporter Christopher Blank, who promoted billboards supporting women driving up Interstate 55 from Tennessee to Carbondale, Illinois for abortions.
The star of the story was a hairdresser named "Queen" -- "we're not using her name due to privacy concerns." Blank described her as wearing a T-shirt proclaiming in capital letters "I WILL FOREVER AID AND ABET ABORTIONS." She explained "People make mistakes." Abortion is never a mistake, somehow. She's not ashamed of hers. The reporter and his subject were driving up I-55 when they came across a pro-abortion sign. The hairdresser was ecstatic.
"Yes! GOD'S PLAN INCLUDES ABORTION! It does! It does. I agree."
(Photo by Christopher Blank)
Blank explained the new billboard is one of six paid for by Seattle-based "Shout Your Abortion." Its founder Amelia Bonow says this route in particular — leading to the abortion clinic in southern Illinois — needed a counterpoint to the pro-life billboards.
"I-55 is just covered with these hateful, judgmental, shaming, intentionally traumatizing anti-abortion billboards," Bonow said.
Blank explained some billboards invoke the Bible. Others, by the group Pro-Life Across America, show smiling babies and a phone number.
In the few seconds of rebuttal allowed in this pro-abortion story, that group's founder Mary Ann Kuharski said their billboards generate about 500 calls per month. "We don't argue," she said. "We don't use harsh words. We never even use the word abortion on our billboards."
Not exactly "hateful, judgmental, shaming, intentionally traumatizing." If pictures of smiling babies are traumatizing, they must want no pro-life billboards at all.
The NPR reporter then said the phone number refers women to "so-called crisis pregnancy centers" for sonograms and counseling. The "real crisis," Blank said, was the anti-abortion laws. Bonow complained, "They don't actually stop people from having abortions, but they make people struggle in order to have abortions." Killing your baby should always be as convenient as possible.
The other "Shout Your Abortion" billboards say "Abortion is okay," and "Abortion is normal, you are loved." Abortion provider Jennifer Pepper says they help women on an "emotionally difficult" death trip. "We'd heard from patients that it felt really good to see an affirming message,"
"Queen" concluded: "It's going to give some of them more courage, more strength, more belief. It's going to ease their souls. That's what it's going to do."
The NPR.org home page on Wednesday featured an ad by Twilio, touting how their product is "Positioned highest for ability to execute." That lingo is an unfortunate match.
