NY Subway Ad Campaign Tells Women “Abortion Changes You” by Lori, at Feministing 8:17 am / 12 March 2010

So, I live in BK and work in Manhattan. That means that every morning and every night, I spend about 30 minutes riding the NYC subway -an hour total on a daily basis.
Now. Usually I don't mind this part of my day. I scrunch up tight in packed trains with my fellow commuters, willing to weather the occasional bump and jostle to get to work at a reasonable hour. I jam to my customized "commute" playlists. I read from my book-of-the-moment. I play mindless video games on my iphone (jellycar holla!).
Anyway, apparently, thanks to a new ad campaign launching this month on NYC subways, I will be adding "I am forced to read some f'ed up anti-choice ads" to my regular subway repoirtoire.
Metro US is reporting that, starting this week, the New York City subway system will be home of a massive ad campaign bankrolled by the San Diego-based anti-choice organization "Abortion Changes You".
More images and info on the ads after the jump.
The article warns that
The 2,000 ads, which straphangers will see in nearly every subway station beginning tomorrow [this week], depict either a woman saying, "I thought life would be the way it was before," or a man saying, "I often wonder if there was something I could have done to help her."
I call bullshit, and I'm not the only one. Samantha Levine of NARAL Pro-Choice New York is all over this one:
"The campaign suggests that feelings of sadness and self-harm are the universal experiences for someone who had an abortion. And there's no evidence to suggest that that's true. The organization behind these ads has an agenda. They aren't seeking to help women -- they're seeking to get abortion banned."
I totally agree. I'm all for validating and honoring the experience of women who have had an abortion. But there are already TONS of really great support systems for women who have had abortions that are equipped to address a RANGE of post-abortion emotions and outcomes- glee, relief, guilt, sadness, loss, pride, no reaction at all, or a million other possibilities. When an ad campaign chooses to ignore these very real experiences of women who have had abortions, you have to assume that they have an agenda other than helping real women.
So, "Abortion Changes You" ad campaign, I have a question for you: If you care about women so much, why push such an anti-woman agenda? I think that the hidden-agenda-cloaked-in-faux-concern-for-women trend needed to end with the Aughts, yet somehow, the bizarre and twisted logic behind showing women you care about them by cutting off their access to healthcare mysteriously, miraculously, persists in all its annoyingness. Unfortunately, these ads are only the latest to join the crowded ranks of people and initiatives who couch their anti-woman agendas in messaging about "concern" for women and families (Georgia Right to Life, and Howard Stern are two recent ones that come to mind).
Aside from all that, the pictures from the group's website are pretty funny when you think about the fact that all the models are fake and just had these words plastered over their faux-concerned images:

I'm sorry your wife gets depressed, Brett Favre, but that's no excuse to take away other women's autonomy.

Listen, if you thought you were doing your job, you were absolutely right! You're a model, and you're looking real melancholy in this generic print ad. So...congrats on that!
In sum, I'll take a cue from Maya who wrote on twitter "yes, abortion change you- it makes you not pregnant anymore!" Also, you know what else changes you? Being FORCED to carry a pregnancy to term against your will! Now that's an ad campaign I wouldn't mind seeing on my morning commute.











