Graphic Abortion Billboard Trucks Break Through Canada's Media Blackout

LifeSiteNews ^ | 8/9/07 | Hilary White

[wagglebee]

CALGARY, August 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In contrast with the media blackout that pro-life Canadians are used to expecting at their demonstrations, media coverage of the Reproductive Choice Campaign trucks rolling on Calgary streets this week has been lively. The trucks feature three-metre high photos of aborted children and an email address for more information.

Local papers and radio stations were joined by CBC and Global News who took video footage, while CTV News Calgary has run a two-minute television news spot three times in the last two days and included the sponsoring group's website address. This coverage constitutes a frenzy compared to the nearly total media blackout that is traditional at pro-life events such as the annual March for Life event in Ottawa. 

The Calgary Sun headlined today's article, "Graphic abortion images shock Calgarians" and carried the CTV story verbatim in print form. A smaller local paper, Fast Forward Weekly, ran the headline "Little truck of horrors" and quoted Stephanie Gray, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, the truck's sponsoring group, responding to the accusations of shocking onlookers. "If there is nothing wrong with abortion, the images shouldn't bother them," she said.

A talk radio station, CHQR 770, has been broadcasting their report on the trucks every half hour from noon yesterday to five pm today. 630 CHED radio in Edmonton will carry a live 30-minute interview with Gray and she will be on 940 Montreal at 10:35 am EST for ten minutes.

CTV's video spot, which is available online, clearly shows close-ups of the photos and reporter Najuma Yagzan says, "You can clearly distinguish a body, hands and feet."

Jose Ruba, a cofounder and staffer of CCBR who today drove the support car accompanying the trucks, told LifeSiteNews.com that this was likely the first time the GAP pictures had been seen on English-language Canadian television.

"We had the GAP photos in Ottawa in 2004 when Planned Parenthood was giving Henry Morgentaler a lifetime achievement award and the national French-language TV used the images. But even when the CBC covered the controversy over the GAP display at UBC [in 2000], they only filmed the GAP images from 30 or 40 feet away."

"The whole story at UBC then was about the signs, but they didn't even show them. So today's coverage from so many sources was a big win for us in that they showed the signs," Ruba said.

Onlookers interviewed by CTV agreed that the images are "shocking" but also that they depict something true. "I've had nothing to do with it personally, so you don't think seriously about it, but looking at that, you can see the murder aspect of it all," one man said.

CTV offered a counter argument from a spokesman of Sexual Health Access Alberta (SHAA), but declined to mention that the group is an abortion advocating organization that until September 2006 was called Planned Parenthood Alberta. SHAA's Executive Director, Laura Wershler, criticised the tactic saying, "In those circumstances there's no opportunity for meaningful discussion or debate."

But Stephanie Gray told LifeSiteNews.com that she and her group were still waiting to hear back from Wershler on their offer of a public debate. Gray said, "I contacted Laura requesting a debate partner and I'm waiting to hear back from her and this is months ago."

CCBR said they contacted Wershler on November 16, 2006 on behalf of the pro-life club at the University of Calgary. "I emailed her a sample debate format and agreed that the debate should be a civil one with a neutral moderator."

"I'm still waiting to hear back from her," Gray said.

Wershler did not return calls from LifeSiteNews.com by deadline.

Onlookers interviewed by CTV, however, showed no signs of psychological trauma from seeing the photos. In one street interview, a young woman appeared unsettled but admitted that the images were depicting the reality of abortion, "To me, that's really harsh, but that's reality I guess. It's what happens when you have an abortion. But, wow, that is graphic, yeah."

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Billboard-Size Abortion Photos to be Shown throughout Canada as Trucks Take the Message to the Streets
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07080802.html

Pro-Life GAP Display At UBC Causes an Uproar
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2000/oct/00102501.html

Bloggers Trump Mainstream Media With YouTube Videos of Canadian March for Life
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07051705.html

Watch CTV coverage:
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/B/200...

[oakcon]

I’m gonna come off sounding completely callous here, but my take on it is that it’s a good thing your nephew was traumatized, and other children should experience the same feelings of shock, disgust etc. That way, they’ll remember that experience, and, God willing, do something to stop abortion when they’re older.

[trisham]

I’m glad to hear that.

[fanfan]

Did you see my post #183 and the attached link?

Don’t you consider that to be good news?

[trisham]

Abortion is vile.

***************

On that we agree.

[netmilsmom]

Yup, you sound completely callous.

Five years old is a bit young, especially since he is growing up in a Pro-life household anyway.

[trisham]

That being said, the Pro-Life groups need a lesson in advertising. First you have to figure out the path you want your audience to take, and then tantalize them along the path. Information and shocking images to remind them of the wrong path are exactly the wrong thing. If the path is to adoption, then show the joys of a child growing up in an adoptive family. If the path is keeping the baby, then show the joys of motherhood over career or greater financial freedom.

************

Finally, someone who "gets it". One can be pro-life and still understand basic human nature. One can also be pro-life and love the children who are already born as well as those who are still in the womb.

[netmilsmom]

Fantastic news! Truly!
However, did you see that these young ladies made their decisions from displays at Colleges?

I was looking for the amount of Abortions dropping where the trucks are sitting at beaches and amusement parks.

[trisham]

One student told him that she had visited Planned Parenthood recently and was scheduled to have an abortion. She told him, ‘After seeing these photos, that is an appointment I can cancel. I am having a child.’

**************

It sounds as though she saw the pictures at the abortion clinic, which is a more appropriate place than where children are likely to be present.

[Spyder]

Would you be as supportive if some liberal anti-war group pasted huge photos of dead and injured troops on the side of trucks and drove around school yards proclaiming to kids they shouldn’t go be soldiers?

[fanfan]

Fantastic news! ~ Truly! I was looking for the amount of Abortions dropping where the trucks are sitting at beaches and amusement parks.

I sincerely believe that this group is not taking the trucks to beaches and amusement parks.

You could argue that any child might see this on the side of a truck, but they could also see a car accident, or a grandparent wasting away in a hospice, but that's not the point. The point is to save lives, not to protect children from fear. Frankly, children have much to be afraid of, and the sooner they are aware of evil, the better they will be able to deal with it.

Do me a favor. In 10 years, ask the young man how that experience effected him, and let me know. I am prepared to bet that he will tell you that he has come out a better man, with a deeper understanding of the sanctity of life, than if he hadn't seen it.

[fanfan]

Re-read the paragraph.

She had already been to PP, was planning an abortion, and changed her mind after seeing the pictures at the display.

A child was saved.
:-)

[fanfan]

Would you be as supportive if some liberal anti-war group pasted huge photos of dead and injured troops on the side of trucks and drove around school yards proclaiming to kids they shouldn’t go be soldiers?

That's dishonest.

Troops volunteer to protect us, and bravely risk their lives. A 4-8 week old child in the womb has no such choice.

[wagglebee]

Would you be as supportive if some liberal anti-war group pasted huge photos of dead and injured troops on the side of trucks and drove around school yards proclaiming to kids they shouldn’t go be soldiers?

Would I support it? NO. Would I believe that it should be allowed as protected free speech? YES.

Perhaps you should ask MadmanIvan's anti-FReeper WAnkers what they think. After all, "The far "left" end and the far "right" end are actually right next to each other on the circle with the rest of us falling to some distance away from both of them."

[Spyder]

I’ve said the same thing here and I stand by it. The people who advocate these vans are no different than the Code Pink types, and they probably drive just as many away from their point of view as the Code Pinkos.

[wagglebee]

So, you compare the pro-life movement to Code Pink?

[rollo tomasi]

Also the fact that the families of the soldiers shown would sue the crap out of the anti-war crowd.

Also the straw man of the dead soldier could easily be turned around “Son, those men sacrificed their lives so you can be free.” "Those are men of courage” etc,etc,etc...What do the pro-aborts have "That's not a baby" "That blob of tissue died so you can have "risk free" intercourse" etc,etc,etc...

As a young child, I remember going to an anti-war movie called ‘Heroes’ that had Fonzi in it (’Happy Days’ was very popular then). One scene involved a soldier getting his face blown off. I 1)Thought it was gross 2)Made me appreciate the characters sacrifice 3)Did not have bad dreams 4)Did not turn me into an anti-war/freedom not worth dying for idiot.

[Spyder]

A radical activist is a radical activist.

[Paulus Invictus]

The truth is not a bad name.

[ShandaLear]

I disagree. It is exploitation of the innocent at it’s worst.

[wagglebee]

Got it. You consider pro-lifers who oppose abortion the same as Code Pink.