Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Worst Anti-Abortion Ad I Ever Saw

The other day I was reading a story in The Toronto Star about anti-abortion organizations lying to women in their attempt to convince them not to go through with an abortion. I already knew the anti-choice side did this, but I was glad to see The Star reporting on it, and trying to correct the misinformation.

Anyways, among the other reactions it elicited from me, the article reminded me of a billboard I saw at Young-Dundas Square around January this year. An ad so effecting that I believe it is still worth blogging about over six months later...

A single tear runs down the face of a wooden toy soldier. The copy reads: Some toys will have fewer children to play with this year. Some 100, 000 aborted children fewer.

WON'T SOMEONE PLEEEEASE THINK OF THE TOYS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?


The thing is that the ad really focuses attention on the weakness of the anti-choice position. Because it forces you to think, "Wait, if those children were never born, then the toys never had them to play with in the first place, so how is that 'fewer'?" They didn't lose playmates, but potential playmates.

Abortion does not entail the loss of life, but the loss of potential life. 

15 comments:

  1. Oh Jeebus. I've actually seen a more nincompoop-y ad. Are you ready? This one said, "Your OVARIES might not want to give birth again. This might have been your only chance". Because *OBVIOUSLY* a woman without a set of fully functional nether tubes is precisely -- not at all -- a woman. You can go puke now.

    Good post :)

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  2. ... of course, your ovaries are sentient and have desires and aspirations separate from your own.

    Thanks for reading :)

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  3. From what I've gathered from the anti-choice crowd, apparently everything is sentient, except women.

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  4. My first thought upon seeing that billboard? "So Toy Story is true, huh? Hmm..." Probably not the reaction they were hoping for, heh.

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  5. See? Look what you did! You made the darned toy soldier cry! Are you happy now, you... you woman!?

    That ad is hilarious. I cannot stop laughing.

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  6. I remember a particular favorite that said:

    "WHAT! Embryos are babies!"

    I just dug around and I found my post on it, if you want to see the image in all its glory.

    http://theczech.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/kansas-women-seeking-abortion-may-be-required-to-listen-to-fetal-heartbeat/

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  7. I like the childish-looking font. It's like they're talking to children!

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  8. "Abortion does not entail the loss of life, but the loss of potential life. "

    Abortion is loss of life. Embryos, fetuses are alive animals.

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  9. That is why churches reject voluntary abortion.

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  10. @Nemo
    I say "potential" because there are so many possible intervening factors that could result in the termination of the pregnancy. And because that is the reasoning that the billboard leads you to.

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  11. But...nobody would give a toy soldier to a newborn baby anyway. It's a choking hazard. So really, abortions aren't limiting the toy's 'playmates' this year, but more like five years from now.

    Or am I missing the point?

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  12. I bet the Niagara Region Right To Life are all for the death penalty.

    So no contradiction/hypocrisy there, nosiree! [/sarcasm]

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  13. @Nemo, bacteria, parasites, and viruses are also living. By the standards that you set forth, are you trying to argue that if you acquire an otherwise treatable disease, you shouldn't take whatever medicines or undergo whatever surgical procedures that could help cure you?

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  14. The point was 100 000 this year in Ontario alone.

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