The No Room for Contraception Blog reports on a new billboard campaign sponsored by the Diocese of Tulsa. They’re a response to a billboard campaign launched by the local Planned Parenthood affiliate that claims, “Birth Control is Easy.” And, speaking of billboards, I’ve included below an e-mail we recently received from Judy Climer of Flint (MI) Right to Life, whose organization has put up over 50 billboards in the Flint area on behalf of the local affiliate of Black Americans for Life, with which she is also involved. To say the least, the campaign has gotten people talking:
I’ll share a little of our success with BAFL, and you use it however it will bless and help others in this battle to save life. We bought a 10-billboard blitz to put out there for the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade in January of 2004, and the message was: “Abortion, the #1 Killer of African Americans.” (This board is on our website – www.FlintRTL.com) I received a phone call from The Flint Journal (liberal newspaper), ironically, the exact day that the boards were going up. The reporter had talked to Jim Richardson, the Director of PP, and he told them they were giving out free coffee at the Coffee Beanery to “celebrate” Roe vs. Wade. She wanted to know what we were doing. So., I told her we were breaking forth with the truth about how African Americans have been deceived by PP, that little black babies are aborted 3 times more often than babies of all other races (in MI, they accounted for 37% of the abortions) and it makes abortion the #1 killer of African Americans. The reporter was stunned and spent 45 minutes on the phone with me gathering the statistics and websites where she could verify them. Then, she kept calling me all day wanting to know if I could tell her where the boards were, etc., their photographer wanted to get a picture of one “going up.” The next day, our billboard was the front page story a huge picture of it in full color — upper fold — in the newspaper, and the article which took up most of the front page and back was written verbatim as I gave it to her which is not usually the case. Needless to say, my office phones started ringing, and we were called bigots, racists, liars, etc. They misread the message and thought I was saying that black women abort more than white women. I just let them yell at me, and when they finished, I said, please give me 1 minute to tell you what the message of that board is really saying. I converted every single person I was able to get to listen to me for that minute, and we had made packets ready to go with brochures, websites, etc. to let them do their own research. We mailed them out to over 30 people. Out of that, we have four African Americans serving on our board for Flint Right to Life and a dynamic BAFL director — he’s a former Flint City Councilman, has great respect in the black community and has got us into high schools, into health fairs, black churches, etc. We have hosted BAFL luncheons, etc., and the last one had 60 black Pastors and Deacons at it. It has been phenomenal. I was challenged to a debate in the city where they told me there would be a panel of four — two pro-lifeers and two pro-choicers, the purpose to discuss the “racism” of my billboards. Knowing they would stack the audience against me, I got our African American folk there, too. Well, they set me up — the panel was 3 pro-choicers, and 1 pro-lifer (ME). Ahaaaa! But when the audience left, they were giving me the thumbs up — even a black Judge who came in with an attitude walked out with a changed heart. The Director of PP sat on the front row and tried to intimidate me — he asked me why I send out brochures about PP that are lies. So, I thanked him for the excellent question and took right off on Margaret Sanger and her mission to teminate minorities which is still being carried out by PP today. When I finished a little black lady in the back raised her hand and said: “How can I get hold of this old Sanger woman? I’m upset that no one ever told us this before.” We have BAFL T-shirts, pens, rulers, buttons, etc. that we designed ourselves, and we have moved them into our high schools and youth groups. We host a high school and college speech contest, and we are now getting black young people to participate. We have put our own power point presentation together to show in churches, and it is very well received. Right now, we are in the planning stage of putting together post abortion Bible studies, and I discussed them with our Circuit Court Judges because I discovered when I did my Bible studies in two Michigan prisons that 50% of our woman inmates have had abortions. Their shame led them to drugs and alcohol which led them to stealing to support their habits and then a crime that landed them in prison where for the first time, they discussed the pain of their abortion. Our Judges have told me that when our program is in place, they will offer it to women inmates as one of three programs that they can choose from as a condition of probation. If they pick our program, they will be mandated to attend. I am putting together a team that consists of a Pastor, Nurse, Social Worker, post abortion woman, etc. It will allow women to come into a protective environment with people who care, and they will receive the help that may keep them from having to go to prison. Our program will be made up of volunteers at no cost to the taxpayers. The Judges are happy about it as are educators. There is no place men and women can go for counseling that addresses abortion, and so many have been touched by it. I know God is blessing our volunteer efforts, and we are so grateful that abortions in our county have decreased every year since that first billboard went up. We have put up 59 since we started; we have 11 up right now. There is so much more I could share, but I hope I have given you a little bit of our story… Praise the Lord for using our ideas to save life. If I can help you further, please feel free to call me. Thank you, Judy Climer, President Flint Right to Life & Genesee County Black Americans For Life Visit us on the web: www.FlintRTL.com
