Sixty anti-abortion rights billboards placed throughout Oakland in mid-June have created controversy and generated publicity for the groups that sponsored them. Now they’re coming down.
Critics argued that the ads — which were aimed directly at African-Americans — were racist and too controversial to stay up. The billboards have all gone down within the past week. Some argue that pressure campaigns ultimately led to their removal, but a representative for CBS Outdoor, the company that manages the billboards, says the contract simply “ran its course.”
The billboards are a joint effort of the Radiance Foundation and the California-based Issues4Life Foundation and were part of a campaign to “expose Planned Parenthood’s racist and eugenics-based history,” according to a press release. The billboards contained a picture of an African-American child, alongside the words “Black & Beautiful,” with a link to toomanyaborted.com/ca, a site devoted to accusing Planned Parenthood of targeting minorities for abortions.
Similar billboards, sponsored by different groups, Heroic Media and Life Always, have gone up around the country, but have been removed due to controversy.
