Here’s a staff ed I wrote for today’s Daily Barometer. Might as well share it here, since I feel like it’s worth sharing:
“There’s a new billboard in town, and it’s seriously pissing people off.
OK, so it’s not “in town.” It’s not in Corvallis. Or even on the West Coast.
The flashy billboard, which hangs several stories high, is strategically placed in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood, half a mile from the nearest Planned Parenthood.
For those who haven’t seen or heard about it, this billboard features an image of a little black girl sporting a pink top and white bow in her hair. Her mouth is turned down slightly, as if somebody has just seriously disappointed her.
And when you read the text on the billboard, you’ll understand why:
“The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.”
It’s the latest jab in the right-wing fight against abortion, Planned Parenthood and women’s rights to their own bodies and their privacy – not to mention the fact that it calls out, offends and shames an entire population of women.
For almost a week, newscasts have been smeared with coverage of the new bill passed by the House that would end all federal funding to Planned Parenthood. While a bill like this one will almost definitely stall in the Democrat-heavy Senate, the fact that it’s on the floor at all is completely horrifying.
The plain reasoning would seem to be that most Republicans – and seven House Democrats, apparently – want nothing to do with federal funding of abortion. As we’ve been hearing all week, Planned Parenthood doesn’t receive any tax dollars for its abortion procedures (abortion is legal in every state in the United States, by the way – let’s clear that up). The tax dollars go to contraception, education and gynecological exams, to name a few.
That was just background, though. The current legislative uproar is not the point of this editorial.
The billboard, which was paid for by Life Always (you can probably gather from the name what they’re about), is painful. It is offensive and debasing. This column could end here, because there’s really nothing more to say than that.
In one sentence, it shames and assumes guilt for an entire population of women – historically one of the most vulnerable, underrepresented and stratified groups of women in this country. A few literary examples come to mind: The big red “A” from “The Scarlet Letter,” or “The Crucible.”
Approximately 30 percent of the abortions performed in the United States are performed on black women, and historically they have higher rates of abortion than white women. But nationwide, rates of abortion are decreasing, and pointing fingers at a single ethnic group of women and naming them as terrorists is sordid and unnecessary.
Especially if you’re trying to send a message and not alienate an entire population.”
Adventures in the News Hole 